Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Taoiseach. There will be no element of surprise; I will be boringly predictable in mentioning agriculture. When I have to condense all that goes therewith into two minutes, I think the buck stops with forestry at the moment. When we talk about climate action and climate change our land mass provides our only way to capture, store and sequester carbon. While there is no silver bullet, the nearest thing we have to a silver bullet is forestry. I do not use this term lightly, but the forestry sector is in crisis.

Yesterday, representatives of Teagasc and the Department appeared before the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine. They told us about carbon figures carrying. We are trying to achieve neutrality in our balance sheet. We are supposed to be planting trees for sequestering post 2030, but we are not planting them now. This is the big one. It needs an all-of-government approach if we are to meet our ambitions.