Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time".

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am very happy to able to move this amendment Bill today. I will be sharing time with my colleague, Senator Ruane.

The Bill before the House addresses very outdated and narrowly commercial mandates of Coillte and Bord na Móna, two extremely important semi-State bodies. Between them they are responsible for vast amounts of our national land. Coillte is responsible for 7% of the land in the State while Bord na Mona is responsible for 1%. It is important when we look to the mandates that we recognise what has been described in some media as the last century nature of the mandate. These organisations have very outdated mandates. In the case of Coillte, the Forestry Act 1946 refers to carrying on the business of forestry and related activities on a commercial basis. In the case of Bord na Móna, the Turf Development Act 1946 refers to the duties of the company to produce and market turf and turf products. These narrow remits are the key points that are identified in each Act. When the Turf Development Act 1946 was updated in the 1990s more or less the same objects carried forward from the 1940s, so there was, even at that time, a failure to update the vision, even though it was updated in company law.

As I said, Coillte owns and manages 7% of our land, which includes significant areas of animal and plant habitats that are of international importance for biodiversity. This includes 96,000 ha of designated sites and many vulnerable, high-status water bodies.

Bord na Móna has 1% of Ireland's land area. These include land holdings that have the potential to support a rich diversity of wildlife across wetlands, peatlands, grasslands and woodlands. Both bodies can play and should be playing a very significant role in biodiversity and climate action strategies. It is worth noting that public sector bodies are subject to the public sector climate action mandate which requires a 51% reduction in emissions by 2030 under Irish law. However, a decision was made, which I think was a poor one, not to include semi-State companies under that remit. For this reason, it is really important that we have tailored responses in respect of these semi-State bodies. We need to ensure they are properly mandated and empowered to deliver on climate and biodiversity.

The Bill reflects a programme for Government commitment to ensuring that Bord na Móna takes into account climate, biodiversity and water objectives. Another commitment was in relation to addressing Coillte's remit to make sure it delivers climate change commitments and the promotion and protection of biodiversity. What is being put forward in the Bill actually reflects commitments in the programme for Government and gives us an opportunity to move forward on them. It also reflects the recommendations from the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity which called for the remits of Bord na Móna and Coillte to be reviewed to include a focus on peatland restoration and rehabilitation projects and targeted outcomes on biodiversity.

Members of the public have also been consistently clear on what they want from forestry. When consulted on Coillte's most recent strategic review, they say time and again that they want to see native woodlands with a variety of trees, public amenities and access to our forests. They want to see the forests as habitats for wildlife and a far more comprehensive move away from clear-felling and monoculture. That is what the public has consistently told us. However, we know that the vision being put forward for forestry still falls short of those wishes. When Coillte spoke last year about its strategic vision for 100,000 ha of new forests, we heard that the company's vision is underpinned by its commercially successful business. Even where it has ambitions on climate action and biodiversity, those have to be tested against the fundamental legal and commercial mandate. This constrains what is possible on the crucial 7% of public land in the State.

It is worth noting with regard to the forestry programme overall that the European Commission has signalled its concern about the lack of ambition and the danger of a "business as usual, more of the same" approach to a large amount of the new forestry programme. It is estimated that of the 8,000 ha annual afforestation target, 4,600 ha would be mixed forests, primarily Sitka spruce, with just 20% broadleaf trees. With the schemes for agroforestry, native woodlands and amenities that people are excited about, we are seeing pilot projects of 50 ha compared to that larger figure of 4,600 ha. I hope the Bill will give a mandate on climate and biodiversity to Coillte and ensure that we move away from a literal fringe of broadleaf trees or pilot projects to placing biodiversity and climate action centre-stage on the lands and waters that are managed.It is my hope that by giving this mandate on climate and biodiversity to Coillte, it will ensure that we move away from a literal fringing of broad leaf or from pilot projects and that we place these issues centre stage. It will place biodiversity and climate action centre stage in all the lands, soils and waters that are managed.

In terms of Bord na Móna, the Turf Development Act 1998 and other Acts have very much an extractive and a commercial frame. This Bill would instead insert a mandate on climate and biodiversity. Crucially, in the case of Bord na Móna, it would insert a mandate for a just transition. This is a just transition for those who work for Bord na Móna and indeed for the communities in which Bord na Móna operates. This is empowering legislation. It empowers Bord na Móna to take a very different, radical, new approach and move away from a narrow frame, which is where the buck ultimately stops.

In this regard, Bord na Móna would not just be delivering on our commitments on biodiversity and not just looking at the management of the soils and waters in a responsible way but it would also be looking to deliver. This is why we have this language in both sections of the new mandates about the environmentally, socially and economically sustainable work we want to see in both organisations.

I emphasise that my Bill does not completely remove the business component. It allows it, but it speaks about sustainable business. It speaks about things that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. It ensures that when we speak about business, we are not speaking about business as usual. Something the European Commission has looked for from Ireland is evidence of a genuine commitment to moving away from business as usual into something more exciting and visionary.

I will go into the specific issues, such as climate and gigatonnes. The Climate Change Advisory Council has signalled that Ireland is not achieving its national ambition for afforestation. Bord na Móna has a huge role in sequestration. This is something we have highlighted in terms of peatlands. There is a lot of focus on forestry, but peatlands have a dual benefit, which is that when we restore our peatlands, they can act as an incredible carbon sink. We speak about carbon capture, but one of the greatest forms of carbon capture is in the form of peatlands that are suitably rewetted and restored. However, when peatland is degraded and damaged, it becomes an emitter of carbon emissions.

Despite the science on this having been out there for a very long time, Bord na Móna only ended peat harvesting in 2021 after a very long period of the degradation of peatlands. The language in that mandate still focuses on the extraction of value from our peatlands rather than the placing of value into what our peatlands can do for our environment and for biodiversity. Peatlands are one of the largest natural-based carbon stores. Worldwide, they sequester 0.37 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, which is more carbon than any other vegetation type in the world combined.

This legislation comes at a crucial time. Negotiations are under way on the much-needed EU nature restoration law, which will oblige EU Governments to take better care of the EU's network of priority habitats, many of which in Ireland's case are managed by Bord na Móna and Coillte. It is an opportunity to mandate and empower two of the largest landowners in the State to act positively for climate action and biodiversity, to deliver new ecological models of community development, to deliver sustainable employment for workers, to support communities and to restore the incredible tapestry of biodiversity and ecosystems on this land. This could be a sustainable future for us all.

My last point is on Coillte. We speak about public access and the public interest in the Bill, which is a crucial element. That empowers Coillte to put the test of public interest alongside the test of commercial benefit when it is making decisions. This is alongside climate and biodiversity. That wide perspective will lead to better decision-making and better outcomes for us all.