Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Boyhan and his colleagues for tabling the motion and giving us the opportunity to discuss forestry in the Seanad. It also gives me the opportunity to comment on some of the points raised and outline some of the ongoing developments in the sector.

I welcome the interest in this matter, which is evident from the contributions that have been made. I emphasise once again the importance of the forestry sector not only to the Irish economy but, as Senator Boyhan highlighted, to the Irish people. I also highlight the important role of forestry in the delivery of our targets under the climate action plan.

In this debate, recent debates in the Dáil and at meetings of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine, Deputies and Senators have been united in their support for increased afforestation for the benefit of farmers, rural communities and our climate, as well as for other matters, including water quality and biodiversity. This is what the Government is seeking to achieve by means of the new forestry programme. We have very ambitious climate targets with forestry planting at the very centre of these ambitions. The Government has committed €1.3 billion to the new forestry programme, with substantially higher payments for farmers. This is largest funded forestry programme ever introduced by any Government. It will give rise to an increase in forestry premiums of between 46% and 66%. It has been designed to ensure that farmers, as the primary investors, will be the primary beneficiaries.Farmers will receive 20 years of tax-free premium payments, compared to 15 years of premium payments for non-farmers. In addition to receiving this extra 33% in premium payments, farmers who plant new forests will also receive the single farm payment on lands converted to forestry. Other private landowners will not receive that payment.

The new forestry programme is also designed to put an emphasis on close-to-nature forestry and will include a small-scale native woodland scheme, which we discussed at length in this Chamber last year, whereby farmers will be paid to plant mixed native broadleaf forests of up to 1 ha in size on farms and along watercourses without the need for a forestry licence. This is another clear incentive to our farmers to consider planting their land.

Comprehensive public consultation has taken place over the past year on the development of a national forestry strategy. This resulted in the publication of a shared national vision for the role of trees and forests in Ireland to 2050 together with a new draft strategy which sets out a clear set of objectives for the role of trees and forests in Ireland between now and 2030. The new forestry programme for 2023 to 2027 will be the primary means by which the strategy is implemented over the next five years. This forestry programme is subject to state aid approval from the European Commission. The previous state aid guidelines for the forestry sector expired on 31 December 2022 and have been replaced with a revised version as of January 2023. The introduction of these revised guidelines meant that a formal application for state aid approval could not be made before January 2023. My Department is continuing to engage with the European Commission to get this state aid approval process completed as soon as possible.

The launch of a new forestry programme will offer a great opportunity to improve the perception of forestry among a very broad range of stakeholders. There is now a real opportunity to ensure that the forestry sector can deliver on the legitimate expectations of all stakeholders. As such, it incentivises a broad range of planting options such as native forest creation on public lands, amenity forests, NeighbourWood schemes, woodland improvement schemes and woodland environment fund actions. However, it is also important that those with an interest in the sector recognise these growing expectations of what forestry can and should deliver for society from carbon sequestration to the protection of watercourses and biodiversity and the creation of employment and the displacement of concrete and steel in construction. With the right approach, I am confident that forestry has the potential to achieve all of those goals.

While the precise timing of the state aid approval is a matter for the European Commission, farmers can still engage with their planners in the meantime to have much of the preparatory work done so that they can officially submit their application once the programme is open. I urge farmers to do just that.

On forest licensing, I am pleased to report that the system is now working well, with turnaround times for licences substantially improved. When I first became Minister of State, the debate was all about felling licences. People were asking where the licences were and telling us to sort out the backlog. In one sense, I am glad the debate is now about afforestation. It looks to the future and is about getting trees in the ground. I welcome that. It is a significant shift in the debate and shows the improvement the Government has brought about in two and a half years. To emphasise how efficient the licensing system has become, I will note that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine issued 4,713 licences in 2022, over 1,200 more than the number of applications received last year. In August 2021, we had 6,700 applications on hand. We now have just over 2,500, a figure that continues to reduce each week. The number of licences issued for both timber felling and forest roads reached a record level for any single year in 2022. There are now more than 1,000 approved afforestation contracts, with approximately 7,300 ha ready for planting as of now. We have seen real progress here. We want to continue that push and to become ever more efficient. Part of that involves confidence in the sector and among farmers. I absolutely support a promotional campaign, advertising and whatever it takes for farmers to understand the benefits of afforestation for their farms and their pockets.

While the new forestry strategy and programme are not yet finalised, the Department has introduced an interim afforestation and roads scheme so that those with valid approvals under the old forestry programme can plant and build roads in line with the new programme. Under these interim arrangements, which have been put in place pending approval of the new programme, those with valid existing licences can now proceed to plant at the higher rates under the new programme. In the first month of this year alone, we have already received 137 applications to proceed with planting under the interim arrangements. That corresponds to 884 ha. More is expected for the rest of this spring planting season. We have also received 26 applications to proceed with road construction under the interim arrangements. We are committed to keeping this critically important sector moving through this relatively short period between the old and new programmes. Felling and non-grant-aided road licences will continue to issue and the Department's significantly enhanced licensing system will continue to progress existing afforestation applications up to the point of approval, pending state aid approval. Under the new programme, farmers, as the biggest landowners in the country, will have the opportunity to play the most significant role in the creation of new forests. We hope they will take advantage of the generous incentives on offer to help to drive increasing afforestation.

The afforestation targets set out in the forestry programme and the climate action plan are ambitious and will require the input of all stakeholders. The Government has asked Coillte to get back into afforestation to help the country to meet its ambitious forestry targets. That is why Coillte has been exploring all available options to support the creation of new forests in Ireland. Under its new forestry strategic vision, Coillte has stated its aim to grow 100,000 ha of new forests by 2050. This vision will be key in supporting the delivery of one third of Ireland's afforestation target and providing a carbon sink for 18 million tonnes of CO2. As Senators are aware, Coillte has been precluded from directly receiving premiums following the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union and, under the existing forestry programme, could not draw down premiums itself. As I have said, my Department is currently working intensively to secure full state aid approval for the new forestry programme. Without prejudice to this ongoing deliberative process, clarity will be sought on specific scenarios and details of possible claimants under this programme. This includes a possibility for Coillte to be a direct beneficiary of forest premiums under the programme.

I am acutely aware of the concerns that have been expressed regarding Coillte's involvement with the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, and Gresham House. It has been debated at length over recent weeks. Coillte has partnered with ISIF to establish the Irish Strategic Forestry Fund as one of a number of models it intends to deploy in order to enable afforestation at a meaningful scale. However, as my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and I have repeated, our preferred option is for farmers to plant forestry on their own land. That is what we have designed the new forestry programme to achieve. To be clear, Coillte will not sell any existing publicly owned forests to the fund nor will it seek to purchase any public land on behalf of the fund. I wish to put that on the record of the Seanad. Any land purchased by the fund will already be in private ownership. No private landowner will be forced to sell land to the fund. The total area of new forest to be planted under this particular arrangement is 3,500 ha, a tiny percentage of our overall ambition. Building afforestation momentum in a sector that has been stagnant is necessary but there are various options to reach our ambitions. That is why the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and I have asked Coillte to examine how it can work more closely with the State as well as with farmers and local communities. Coillte has outlined to us that this fund is just one of a number of models it intends to deploy to contribute to the State's overall forestry targets.

Our main focus in the Department is now on securing EU state aid approval in order to introduce the new programme as quickly as possible. We have a job of work to do to change the perception around forestry but increasing our afforestation rates will be good for the environment, for our climate targets and, critically, for farm family incomes. With regard to public investment in forestry, there is merit to teasing out this issue further in the coming months. I am all ears to any ideas - one was suggested today - that will increase the number of trees in the ground regardless of whether they are to be funded publicly or privately or whether they involve citizen-led action or investment from State agencies or local authorities. All such actions are positive for forestry and climate action. We are currently working on many such actions through existing initiatives and the new forestry programme. I look forward to continuing to work together with farmers and all stakeholders to deliver on the new forestry strategy and forestry programme for the benefit of all. Senator Lombard made a statement and I wrote it down because it struck me. He said "People want the opportunity to be part of a story of change". I thought that was very eloquently put and is something I am going to use again if he does not mind. I thank Senator Boyhan and his colleagues for bringing forward this motion and for enabling the debate. I thank the Senators for their input.