Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being here. We had a lengthy couple of days earlier in this Seanad term to discuss this issue. We are back to discuss it again. As a member of the agricultural panel, I feel that afforestation is a method of decarbonisation that we do not really utilise enough in the fight against climate change. Given that we have the spectre of COP26 looming large over all discussions about climate action in Ireland and around the world, we are all hyper-focused on it. Everyone saw the clip of our former President, Mary Robinson, yesterday. She was deeply upset and frustrated by what she feels is a lack of action, commitment and real movement towards genuinely tackling the climate crisis. We need to think about what we are doing and all the different actions we are taking here, and how that impacts on climate change.

I note that many have stated in the media in recent weeks that COP26 is one of the more exclusionary gatherings. I was horrified to hear that there are more delegates from fossil fuel companies at COP26 than delegates from nations in attendance. It has also been correctly pointed out by nations in the global south that the biggest transgressors tend to be the ones in front of the cameras calling for climate justice and for all of us to pull together. The sad irony is that we then manage to keep up with the targets that we set ourselves. Many people would say that Ireland is a relatively small nation. However, we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world. We have standards of living, education and infrastructure which are the envy of nations around the world. It is time that we address the fact that our way of life is in no small part fuelled by resources and economies in much poorer countries. It is not fair for us to make calls for others to meet new carbon reduction goals before we step up to the mark ourselves on climate change.

Returning to the topic of forestry licensing in Ireland, my colleague, Deputy Sherlock, accurately summed up the issue in a debate in the Dáil recently when he pointed out the significant cost of missing our afforestation targets in Ireland in recent years. Over the past five years, we have missed planting targets by over 15,000 ha and had this area been planted, it would have had the potential to remove 5.4 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere over its lifetime. That opportunity is now lost. Afforestation for 2021 will be approximately 2,000 ha. This is a missed opportunity to sequester carbon. That may sound defeatist. Language such as "lost" is not what I generally like to use but I feel that is the truth of the matter. Inaction on decarbonisation is not a neutral stance. It is destructive. Every day that we are not proactively planting trees is a day that we are contributing to this crisis.

While preparing for this debate, I was struck by the ambition shown about the matter in 2014. I will read what was written on the matter at the time. The publication states:

Forests, products and people – Ireland’s forest policy – a renewed visionwas published in 2014. The strategic goal of Irelands forest policy is: To develop an internationally competitive and sustainable forest sector that provides a full range of economic, environmental and social benefits to society and which accords with the Forest Europe definition of sustainable forest management.

It is probably fair to say that we have not yet quite reached those aims. That is not necessarily a jab at the Minister of State. It is fair to say that Ireland did not reach those aims that we laid out in 2014. Our climate action plan is completely undermined if we do not see a significant increase in new planting. As things stand, every year, we are missing out on millions of tonnes of carbon sequestration. Every hectare of new forest and its timber will offset 150 tonnes of carbon dioxide during its lifetime so every 1,000 ha we do not plant is 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide still in the atmosphere. This year, we will plant approximately 2,000 ha. We need 15,000 ha of new forest every year to get to net zero by 2050. There is a large gap between the Government's ambition for tree-planting and what is being delivered.

There is a major challenge in the forestry sector. Not enough progress has been made despite unprecedented attention to forestry at the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. This affects farmers and businesses all around the country. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine continues its snail's pace approach to solving the forestry crisis. The forestry licensing crisis continues with approximately 5,000 applications still in the backlog today. When we were here in September 2020, we listed different figures of backlogs from different people that we knew. There is still a backlog in applications. More applications will go into the system this year than licences will come out and the problem will continue to grow. The Department recently committed to ensuring 4,500 licences this year but it is now clear that we will miss that target.

Planting of new forest continues to be especially badly hit. No progress has been made on afforestation, with less than ten licences issuing each week, with a two-year waiting list. We do not have two years. When we are talking about climate change, it is time to accept that we have run out of road. In fact, we ran out of road a long time ago. Afforestation is just one method that we can use to help to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis. It is time to start accepting that and responding accordingly. This not only has an impact on the climate in the long term but it has a direct impact on farmers and workers in the business-related forestry sector. The single biggest issue in getting farmers to plant trees is the delay in licences, which we are here to talk about. There is too much uncertainty and bureaucracy. Farmers are losing millions of euro in lost timber revenues. They cannot harvest when they want to. Some 700,000 tonnes of logs have been lost to licensing delays in the last two years. This has hit forest owners and sawmills. The licensing crisis is undermining the growth of our sawmill industry and the forestry sector is rapidly losing people because of the Government's inability to deliver licences.

There are solutions to these challenges but urgency and ambition are needed to deliver them. We must find a way to meet the Government's ambitious tree-planting targets and our own climate goals. As Senator Boylan said, we need a new forest strategy that encourages all types of new forests, away from the monoculture Sitka spruce, with a move towards continuous cover broadleaf forests. We need a new forestry programme that will encourage and incentivise farmers to plant forests. There is a gap between what the Government is saying about forestry and planting and what is being heard on the ground. Perhaps that is because of the complexity around licences or because it is overwhelming. I do not think that those connections are being made in the way that they need to be made. We need to re-energise and reward our forestry sector and start to support it rather than holding it back. We need a public campaign to show the great benefits of forests to encourage more public support.

As I said the last time when we discussed this, I have grave concerns about fees and costs being used as a deterrent. I am still of a view that that is really what the fees are for. I want to put my concerns about the fees and how they impact people on the record again. With regard to genuinely engaging with Government, planning and all sorts of different things, I do not know if fees are doing what they set out to do.