Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairperson and the Minister for taking this important Commencement matter. I am speaking on behalf of farmers in my local community in Longford-Westmeath. I have met the chair of the forestry committee of the Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, and individual landowners who are looking for certainty and want to plant in future. I have spoken to Glennon Brothers, one of the biggest companies in this country which also operates abroad. It provides timber products throughout Ireland and the UK and is responsible for hundreds of jobs in my community in Longford and also in Cork. It also has a factory in Scotland. Glennon Brothers is looking for certainty that the company will have a future. I cannot understand why we do not have clarity about the funding available to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to move the new forestry programme forward. As Senator Lombard stated, it was our understanding that this scheme would be ready for the National Ploughing Championships and we now hear it might not be ready until April or May. We are looking for certainty on behalf of the landowners who want to plant their land. We want to increase the amount of land we plant, yet we cannot tell the people who are considering planting what the grants or premiums will be with any certainty. Individual landowners will make alternative decisions with their land.

I ask the Minister to provide clarity on whether the Department for Public Expenditure and Reform has allocated funding to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for a scheme to be put in place. Will he also confirm that we will hear what those premiums and grants are sooner rather than later? April 2023 is far too late; we need this now.