Seanad debates
Tuesday, 4 July 2023
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Forestry Sector
1:00 pm
Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to deal with this matter related to forestry, which is an area to which she is hugely committed. She will recall we had our last little engagement on this matter back in April. I had hoped we would have made some progress. In case there is any misunderstanding, I am absolutely committed to forestry. I see its significance and importance. As well as sitting on the Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage I sit on the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The forestry issue has exercised the latter committee quite extensively, as the Minister of State will know. To be fair, she has engaged extensively with us, as she has with other people.
I will take her through a few points. In November 2022 the Government announced a new €1.3 billion forestry programme for 2023 to 2027. This new programme was expected to replace the previous one, which expired at the end of 2022. The Department submitted the request for state aid approval only in early 2023. We had difficultly in understanding the date, but we now know that is all done. It is July and the new programme is still awaiting formal state aid approval from the European Commission. The new programme is also subject to an ongoing strategic environmental assessment, SEA. There may have been a draft or a preliminary SEA and then there is the other issue of an appropriate assessment process. The Minister of State is familiar with all the assessment processes. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is not in a position to launch its new forestry schemes until a satisfactory strategic environmental assessment is in place, along with a number of other issues. I understand the Department has been engaging with the Commission in the past few months to secure approval.
As the Minister of State knows, the Department cannot issue licenses for granting afforestation roads or forestry support schemes until the new programme is in place. There has been slow progress and I would like progress on that. I understand there can be no new approvals until the appropriate environmental assessment has been concluded and that is ongoing work. Strategic environmental assessment is a process for formal, systematic evaluation of the likely significant environmental effects of implementing a plan or programme before the decision is made to adopt such a plan. It has been suggested the SEA report does not appear to adequately address concerns about the piecemeal forestry plantations on high-value farmland. I have engaged with people in Europe on this issue, as well as other stakeholders and with people I would expect to be close to these ongoing and protracted exchanges of information with the Department and the Commission itself. There is a suggestion there are issues around the SEA.
The Minister of State is clearly very favourably inclined to the protection of the environment and biodiversity, as am I, and that is good, important and significant. However, what is clear with respect to this debate is the need for transparency. We have talked about transparency across the whole field of public life in these Houses in recent weeks, but the Government needs to share with all stakeholders rather than just some how critical the EU is of the entire Irish forestry model being advanced in this programme. I am told the Commission is seriously critical of the sitka spruce model that has been ongoing and which it is proposed continue as part of the new plan. I hear the Commission is extremely concerned about the Coillte-Gresham House deal. There are a whole range of issues. The Government has a programme. The programme is ambitious and rightly so, but the stakeholders at large are outside and do not know what is happening. They want more information and greater clarity.
I finish by saying I have raised time and time again with the Minister of State and the Department the role of the Social Economic Environmental Forestry Association, SEEFA. On its behalf I again ask that the Minister of State and her officials meet with its representatives. SEEFA represents a huge sector within forestry. Its members are keen and have made numerous requests to meet the Minister of State and Department officials and have not been successful. She might shed some light on the reasons behind that.
Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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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.
Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for the clarity of that information. There is much in it. The welcome news is that the ring-fenced €1.3 billion is still in place. Regarding engaging with stakeholders, I accept that the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, are in sensitive negotiations. At some point, there is an onus to share as much information as the Minister of State can. Is she confident we will get state aid approval?Is that something on which the Minister of State wishes to comment? I would like to think she is confident. I accept there are negotiations to be completed.
I will not ask the Minister of State to reply to my final point. That would not be fair because it was not mentioned in the Commencement matter. However, I ask that she bring the message to the Minister that it would be meaningful for him, the Minister of State herself and the officials in their Department to meet with the Social Economic Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland, SEEFA. The group has a lot to offer and a lot of experience to bring to the table. We need to engage with it.
Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party)
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I thank the Senator once again. I share his frustration and that of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine and stakeholders across the country regarding the protracted nature of this state aid approval process. I reassure people that we are making every effort to make sure this is right. We need to get it right. We are coming off the back of decades of legacy issues and that has impacted our ability to seek and obtain state aid approval quickly. That baggage is still there and we are trying to show that this proposed programme represents a change from previous programmes. In my mind, it does. It is a significant change.
I was surprised to hear the Senator's criticism of the Sitka spruce model in his opening statement. It is not the tree per sethat is the problem; it is the management of the tree. Unfortunately, we need those fast-growing conifers, of which Sitka spruce is a particular variety, to supply the timber of the future. As we try to fix the problems of the past, we also have to look forward and look to decarbonising our construction sector in the future. That is one part of what we aim to do.