Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I do not need to welcome the Minister of State because this is her House. I thank her for coming to address this issue. The focus of my Commencement matter today, and hopefully the Minister of State will deal with all this, is the need to confirm the number of forestry planting licences that have been granted since 1 January 2023. Can she confirm that Ireland has formally submitted its completed - with the emphasis on completed - application for state aid approval with the European Commission, and that the Commission has no outstanding issues regarding this application?

I do not doubt the Minister of State's personal commitment to agriculture, forestry, horticulture or any of that. She very often uses the slogan about planting the right tree in the right place. I accept all of that. The reality today, and I will make one prediction, is that the target for planting 8,000 ha of new forestry this year and every year certainly will not happen this year, and I will tell the Minister of State why. There is a failure to hit the planning targets. It threatens the future supplies of our timber. The Minister of State and I both know that. If we do not deliver on our targets, there will, of course, be implications in terms of our climate targets and aspirations and ambitions, which have been rightly set high. There is a frustration among foresters and farmers about the delays in the €1.3 million state aid plan that was unveiled by the Minister of State and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue. They are ambitious plans and I welcome the forestry plans.

Forest Industries Ireland director Mr. Mark McAuley today in The Irish Times"warned that virtually no trees would be planted in the Republic until next ... [winter] as a consequence of the promised Government supports that have ... [not materialised]." As the Minister of State knows, we cannot plant trees in the summer. It is simply too dry; it does not happen. Yes, we might get up until May but historically it does not really go beyond that. That is a challenge in itself. When was the necessary paperwork completed and lodged with the EU for consideration of the approval for the Government scheme? The Minister of State and members of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, myself included, have had much engagement on all this. They have not been easy debates and discussions. We might listen to IBEC, which has affiliated forestry groups. It said the Republic has barely reached one quarter of what the figures are expected to be. It is blaming licensing delays on the bureaucracy of Departments in all of this. I would be interested to hear the Minister of State's response to that.

I welcome the Government's decision to increase the planting of native species, which is important. I know some people in the forestry sector have an issue with that; I do not. It is important that we have our percentage. The Minister of State has set the targets for that and rightly so. They are important. When looking at the latest dashboard with which the Minister of State will be very familiar, we can see that zero afforestation licences have been issued. There have only been 5 km of road licences and the lowest volume of felling licences for 2023. That is the reality of it. What is the issue? I hope the Minister of State will elaborate on that.

I looked at figures this morning that were issued by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, under the title of who is planting the new forests. Back in 2010, which was a peak for us, 7,929 farmers planted forests over an area that covered 8,314 ha. That is interesting because that is sort of the target we are on now. Back in 2010, based on the CSO figures, we had 7,929 farmers planting 8,314 ha. That is an enormous number of hectares. When we move to 2021, the most recent figures from the CSO tell us that we have a drop from 7,929 farmers down to 360. The figure was 360 in 2021 and, of course, we see the coverage there was 2,016 ha. The Government's target is 8,000 ha. We are a hell of a long way short of all of that. I look forward to the Minister of State's response.

Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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I thank Senator Boyhan for his continuing interest in the really important sector of forestry in Ireland. I welcome the opportunity to update him and other Senators on the progress that has been made on the application for state aid approval for the new forestry programme.

As the Senator will know, and he alluded to it in his opening speech, the Government has committed to a €1.3 billion new forestry programme, which is the biggest and largest funded forestry programme ever introduced by any government here. It has been designed to have an emphasis on close-to-nature forestry and ensure that farmers will be its primary beneficiaries.

Senators will be also aware from the many hours we have spent already discussing it in this Chamber that the forestry programme 2023 to 2027 is subject to state aid approval from the European Commission and is also subject to an ongoing strategic environmental assessment, SEA, and appropriate assessment, AA, process, which is a critical step in the process of securing state aid approval. The new state aid approval rules only came into force at the start of 2023 and we were not in a position to begin our process in advance of this. From the first opportunity when the new rules came into force, my Department has been engaging intensively with the Commission. This has involved a huge effort by all involved in my Department.I am pleased to confirm that the formal state aid notification for the new forestry programme has been submitted and we are now awaiting formal approval of the Commission for the programme. This is not something I or my Department are in control of. It really is in the hands of the Commission but we are satisfied that we have made the best possible submission and have addressed their concerns.

Not all schemes under the programme require state aid approval under the guidelines. Earlier this week, under the agricultural block exemption regulation, my Department opened two schemes for applications, the forest roads scheme and the innovative forest technology scheme - module 2 investment aid for the development of the forest tree nursery sector. It is important to note, however, that no new approvals can issue under these or any other schemes until the appropriate environmental processes have been concluded. However, it should also be noted that all afforestation files currently in the system will continue to be processed up to the point of approval, and once we get the State aid approval we will be able to issue those licences.

While the 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, 957 felling licences have issued for 11,000 ha. In recognition of the need for planting activity to continue, and pending the launch of the new programme, my Department engaged with the Commission last December to secure an interim solution, which has led to the introduction of an interim afforestation scheme, via general de minimis, 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 programme. To date in 2023, a total of 261 applications have been approved under the interim afforestation scheme, representing more than 1,000 ha. Under the interim roads scheme, 71 approvals have issued representing more than 27,000 m. Of the 1,583 ha approved in 2023 for afforestation under the interim scheme, over 700 ha of planting has been completed and planting has commenced on a further area in excess of 500 ha. In addition, we have in the first quarter of this year paid for the planting of 195 ha carried out under the previous forestry programme, which will also be included in the 2023 planting figures.

Forestry payments continue to issue under the old programme. In the first quarter of 2023, there has been a total spend of €42,728,570, mainly on forestry premiums for existing forests, with more than €4 million of that figure paid in grants so far this year.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State. The question was precise, and the Minister of State confirmed again that it had been submitted. I asked the Minister of State when it was submitted. Will the Minister of State just tell us when the form was completely submitted? I cannot seem to get that direct answer. It is a simple question. It is in the Commencement matter.

Secondly, there is no statement. The Minister of State's statement has not been circulated to me. Every Commencement matter is circulated. I am sitting here and this also happened the last time. Everyone is issued with the circular and I have not had the opportunity-----

Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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I will give the Senator a copy.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I appreciate that but I have not had an opportunity to study that when I was listening to the Minister of State's four minutes.

I will finish on a few points. Forestry is in crisis. Let us face up to the fact. We are heading into May and no approvals have been given, despite all of the promises by the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and by the Minister when this strategy and plan was launched in November 2022. We are now entering into May 2023 and no approvals have been given. Forestry is in crisis.

I will finish on this point and I respectfully ask the Minister of State to do this because I have asked many times. Would she please engage with the Social, Economic Environmental Forestry Association, which has requested a high-level meeting with the Minister of State and the Minister to discuss the forestry crisis?

Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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I thank the Senator. I do not think I need to reiterate - perhaps I do - that the issue of the state aid approval has been well flagged. It has been known since before the new year that we were awaiting the new state aid guidelines, and that we would not be able to launch a brand new scheme on 1 January, because we had to engage with the Commission and we had to seek the state aid approval. That informal process is now complete. The formal submission has been made-----

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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When? Give me the date.

Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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Recently. I do not have the date.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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The Minister of State is telling me she does not have the date.

Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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I do not have the date on me. I can find it for the Senator and we can let him know.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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The Minister of State is here for a Commencement matter.

Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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The formal submission has been made and we are confident that we have addressed all of the concerns the Commission had in the informal engagement. It is unfair for the Senator to say that the forestry sector is in crisis. I have been visiting forests around the country, and most recently at the weekend in my constituency. There are a lot of happy foresters out there. We are going to have a lot of happy foresters in the future. We have a balance to strike here and we have a programme that must meet the increasingly challenged space that is environmental legislation on environmental conditions. We believe we have done that and we look forward to farmers of the future, young and old, engaging in forestry.