Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her extensive reply. I will pick up on several issues, starting with ash dieback. I have been going on about this matter for a long time, perhaps even before I was the Chairman of this committee. Forestry is a farming activity. In my long experience in farming and in farming politics, this is the first time I have ever seen a response like this to a disease, and that is what ash dieback is, occurring on farms and that is completely outside farmers' control. The disease came from a biosecurity breach. If this were an outbreak of TB, foot and mouth, swine fever or whatever, there would be financial compensation for the farmers involved. A very valuable crop has been lost by a significant number of forestry plantation owners. Grants have been provided to help them to attempt to replant the land, and I fully acknowledge that aspect, but no attempt has been made to nullify some of the great financial losses suffered. Some of the plantations affected had 35 years of growth. There is a moral obligation on us as legislators to go some ways towards meeting the huge financial losses suffered by those plantation owners.

I fully accept that we have a strategy in this regard. When I referred to 25 or 35 years' time, I was talking about the lack of raw material that will be available then for our industry. Unfortunately, in recent years we have failed dismally to meet our targets for afforestation. The programme for Government refers to 8,000 ha in this regard. Stakeholders tell me that we would need applications to be submitted for 1,800 licences in 2022 and a conversion rate of 64% to allow us to meet that target. The average licence application is for 7 ha. Therefore, our targets for the issuing of afforestation licences in 2022 will fall significantly short. The figure targeted was 1,000 licences being issued, but there will be a significant shortfall in what would be required for us to meet our ambition of 8,000 ha. As was detailed earlier, achieving our objective is essential to combating climate change, reducing emissions, etc. This issue worries me.

That is the first target that it is essential for us to meet.We all get the report each week on the dashboard. A target of 20 afforestation licences per week was set. That would be a significant improvement. It equates with the target of 1,000 per year. However, that is being fallen well short of in the first two months of the year. This week, there were only nine. Afforestation is a significant issue. I am worried. In summing up, I will consider what might be done to try to rekindle it.

I wish to raise an issue in the report that has not been addressed today, that is, the issue of unenclosed land. The committee heard there are three categories: enclosed improved land, unenclosed land and land not eligible for grant aid. The committee was informed that in the past large numbers of plantations were located on unenclosed land. They were used in the 1990s, when up to 40% of lands were unenclosed lands. A decision was made by the Department in 2010 to stop plantations on unenclosed land. The committee requested the Department to review this decision. As much land as possible needs to be utilised if Ireland is to meet its annual afforestation target. This was a national decision in 2010 to have a blanket ban on plantations on unenclosed land. There is also a blanket ban on afforestation on designated land. There is a growing opinion that different stages of afforestation on designated land is good for the creation of habitats for the species they are designed to protect, such as hen harriers, etc. I am not saying we should go out in the morning and plant 100% of unenclosed land or designated land but a significant volume of scientific research states that planting 5% every third year or fifth year and having different stages of afforestation growth on designated land and unenclosed land could have a serious beneficial impact on the habitats we are trying to protect. I ask the Minister of State to review that decision in respect of unenclosed land and to revert to the committee with that review to see whether the national decision made in 2010 is in the best interests of what we are trying to achieve.

To conclude, we are all on the same page; we want a successful forestry sector. We want to meet our afforestation targets. We want that to play a significant part in climate change, the reduction of emissions and the carbon sequestration it can deliver. I have two points to make to the Minister of State. I know she has a review going on. First, the schemes should be made financially attractive. Afforestation should be made an attractive form of land use. That is the first essential thing. It may involve increasing the premium per hectare. We have to revamp things and make forestry a financially attractive option for landowners once again.

Second, there should be a one-licence system. I ask her to take away bureaucracy from the licences. When one plants land, if it is a commercial crop, then, as surely as night follows day, that land will have to be clear-felled in 30 or 35 years. There is a need for a one-licence system or a one-stop shop to reduce the bureaucracy and take it out of the licence application process. If we concentrate on those two things, we will rekindle interest in forestry and will have a forestry sector that will deliver what we all want to achieve.