Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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206. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine given the current flooding of the Shannon Basin and the benefits that trees can have to prevent flooding in river basin catchments and his wish to use forestry to offset greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock sector, if it is time to increase the planting targets to the past target of 20,000 ha as suggested in the 1996 Growing for the Future document and not the current target of 6,600 ha in 2016 increasing incrementally to 8,290 ha in 2020 as per the Forestry Programme 2014 to 2020 document; if it is time for him to consider a new approach to promoting tree planting, as it is obvious the current approach does not work, as only 6,252 ha were planted in 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2966/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The launch of the new Forestry Programme last year marked an important milestone in the continued development of the forestry sector in Ireland. This ambitious action plan for forestry covers 11 different measures and has a budget allocation of €482m to be spent over six years.

The aim of the new programme is to plant almost 44,000ha of new forest over the period 2015-2020. In order to achieve this target the afforestation scheme was restructured to encourage more landowners to convert land from agriculture use to forestry. First of all, the grant rate for establishing forests was increased by 5% across all planting categories; this means that the entire cost of establishment is covered by the grant. Secondly, the annual premium rate was increased by 20% across the board and non-farmers are now entitled to the same premium rate as farmers. These premiums are paid at the same rate each year for 15 years. Up until now non-farmers received a fraction of the rate paid to farmers.

Furthermore, new planting categories have been introduced to provide additional options to landowners who may not otherwise have been interested in planting their land. The new Agro Forestry and Forestry for Fibre measures are targeted specifically at farmers, providing them with options for grazing livestock alongside forestry and, in the case of Forestry for Fibre, the option to harvest timber after 10-15 years rather than 35-40 years as is the case with other types of forestry. These are significant developments as the measures present real options for farmers for alternative income sources.

Separately, the Government introduced a new taxation provision in Budget 2016 which makes the income from forestry clear-felling free from income tax.

Increasing the planting target in itself will not deliver higher afforestation levels. The key to achieving this ambition is to create the conditions for landowners where the decision to plant is a good option for the landowner. In this regard data concerning planting levels for a single year is not enough information on which to make changes to the scheme. A comprehensive review of the scheme will however take place as part of a midterm review of the entire Forestry Programme; this review will take place in 2017.