Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Senator Boyhan's interest in forestry and I am glad he shares my commitment to forestry. We both appreciate it is an extremely valuable sector to our country and will be very important for our climate ambitions. A strong funding commitment is imperative in realising the Government ambitions for the Forestry Programme 2023-2027. As such the referenced €1.3 billion package remains fully allocated for the Department's forestry commitments. As the Deputy will be aware, the forestry programme is subject to state aid approval from the EU Commission under the guidelines in the agricultural and forestry sectors and in rural areas. As he highlighted, it is also subject to an ongoing strategic environmental assessment-appropriate assessment process which is well advanced.

My Department, after an extensive pre-notification process, submitted the formal state aid notification for the Forestry Programme 2023-2027 on 20 April 2023. My Department is engaged proactively with the Commission in order to secure State Aid approval as soon as is allowable.

The Commission is currently reviewing this notification in detail to decide whether the proposed forestry programme is compatible with EU state aid rules. To this effect, my Department has now received further written correspondence relating to this notification on 6 and 21 of June 2023. My Department has responded in detail to the correspondence received on 6 June, which covered afforestation and creation of woodlands. My Department is preparing an additional reply to the further correspondence received on 21 June which covers support schemes and other such issues. That response will issue shortly.

Additionally, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and I held bilateral discussions in person with Executive Vice President Timmermans and Commissioner Sinkevièius last month, during which we emphasised the importance of the forestry programme to our climate change and environmental targets, as well as our commitment to complying with all relevant EU environmental law.

Due to the ongoing engagement with the Commission, it is not appropriate to comment further, at this stage of the formal state aid process, on the details of the correspondence exchanged. However, once formal state aid approval has been received, details of this decision will be published on the Commission’s competition website via the state aid register. In addition, once formal state aid approval under the guidelines is received from the Commission, the Department will then be in a position to launch the new programme. This launch will be subject to the finalisation of the strategic environmental assessment, which will incorporate any relevant outcomes form this formal state aid process.

It is also important to note that, pending the formal state aid approval from the Commission, all afforestation files currently in the system will continue to be progressed up to the point of approval. While my Department cannot issue licences for grant-aided afforestation, roads or forestry support schemes until the new programme is in place, felling licences have continued to issue. To date in 2023, 1,575 felling licences have issued for 18,386 ha.

However, in recognition of the need for planting activity to continue during the state aid assessment of the forestry programme, the Department engaged with the Commission last December to secure an interim solution. This led to the introduction of an interim afforestation scheme, an interim forest road scheme and an interim ash dieback reconstitution and underplanting scheme. This ensured that those with valid licence approvals issued before the end of 2022, could avail of the current planting season under the higher grant and premium rates proposed to be paid under the new forestry programme.

Extensive work has been undertaken by the Department in this area and to date this year, a total of 288 applications have been approved under the interim afforestation scheme representing 1,752 ha. Of those, almost 1,195 ha of planting has been completed. Planting has commenced and will be completed on the remaining 261 ha.