Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The percentage of land that is under afforestation in Ireland compared with the EU average has already been mentioned. Ireland is way below where it should be, at below 12% when the average is 39%. We know how important afforestation is as part of the solution to climate change and in addressing carbon emissions. The previous programme for Government set a target of 8,000 ha per year to be afforested. We fell way below that, with not even a quarter of the target reached. This means we are playing catch-up on those targets because the targets set for 2030 and 2050 were dependent on reaching the targets set in the years from 2021 onwards. We need a robust plan that sets targets we will actually achieve to allow Ireland to catch up and ensure we will not be fined by Europe because we are not reaching our targets. We are in danger of being fined if we do not have a robust plan in place. I want to talk about afforestation in west Cavan and Leitrim. A lot of that is hill land and peatland. I agree with my colleague who said we should not be planting on peatland and I disagree with others who said we should. Peatland that has forest on it needs to be returned to peatland because we are losing more carbon than we are saving.

As the Minister of State mentioned in his opening speech, there is resentment and mistrust among farmers about afforestation because they have seen the concentration of forests being put on land where there was no benefit to the local farmer or to the local community. We need a plan that works for everyone and for the environment. It needs to be regionally balanced; it should not all be concentrated in one or two counties. It also needs to be balanced in terms of species. We must maintain a robust timber industry but we also need forever forests that are full of our natural woodland and allow those to mature.

The recent devastation caused by storms Éowyn and Darragh, particularly in west Cavan and Leitrim, was dreadful. It took the ESB crews weeks to get through the forests to repair the power lines. We need to see the Department of agriculture and the ESB working together to plan and ensure there is a corridor maintained either side of lines that is wide enough to ensure that, if a tree falls, it will not bring down the line and cut electricity for weeks, causing a lot of hardship for people. We need to ensure our electricity, communications and water networks are protected from storm damage. The 26,000 ha of forestry that was damaged during the storm needs to be clear-felled and extracted as soon as possible before it becomes worthless. The Minister of State said there is a plan in place or that one is going to be enacted very soon. We need to see that sooner rather than later. There are also issues for farmers with land adjoining forested land. They encountered damage where trees fell on building and fences and so forth. They need to be compensated and included in any action plan.

I want to talk about investment companies and some of the larger farming enterprises buying forestry. Especially in Cavan and Leitrim, they are outbidding the local farmers and then they are not there to take responsibility when something goes wrong such as the damage from Storm Éowyn. Communities feel abandoned and that they are left to clean up the mess. Something should be done to make it a fairer system so that enterprises cannot come in from a different part of the country or from a different part of the world outside of the country and buy up what they deem poor land to offset their emissions while not thinking about the local community or local farmers.