Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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769. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the cost of increasing forestry coverage to 20% over the next 20 years; and the cost of year one of this programme in 2017. [27506/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The baseline figure used for forest cover in Ireland is taken from the 2012 National Forest Inventory (NFI). This figure is revised every 5 years when new planting and clearfelling activities are taken into account at that point in time. According to the 2012 NFI, the total area under forestry is 731,650 hectares or 10.5% of the total land surface of Ireland. In order to achieve an increase to 20% forest cover from this level a total of 646,150 hectares of new forestry is required. The cost to the exchequer of planting this area of land with trees, to include both grants and premiums using existing rates and 15 annual premiums, would be  approximately €7.6 billion. This is a straight calculation without adjustments for items such as future inflation or the shadow price of public funds. If this target is to be reached in 20 years and assuming that the same area is planted each year, the annual total level of afforestation would be 32,308 hectares. This compares with 6,293 hectares planted in 2015. The annual cost of an afforestation programme on this scale would be €378.4 million.