Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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408. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on a proposal supported by local communities (details supplied). [10917/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Afforestation Grant and Premium Scheme is a voluntary and demand led scheme. While national targets exist, there are no county or regional targets. This is a national programme and therefore does not distinguish between beneficiaries on the basis of the location of the land to be planted. This has been a feature of all national Forestry Programmes to date i.e. that every landowner in the country is treated the same under the Terms and Conditions of the relevant scheme.

The scheme is entirely exchequer funded and operates under State Aid rules. The legal basis for the scheme is the Forestry Programme 2014 – 2020. To halt the issuing of licences in a particular county would represent a change to the Forestry Programme. Furthermore, any person applying for approval to plant would have a legitimate expectation that they may be permitted to do so and that they would receive the same treatment as all other applicants. There are also existing applications at all stages in the planning system where applicants have invested time and resources in the preparation of these. Such applications were submitted in good faith and must be treated the same as any other application. In view of these considerations, it would not be appropriate or reasonable to halt the issuing of licences in any county.

In terms of overall afforestation policy, I await with interest the outcome of the study on afforestation in Co. Leitrim, which was announced recently by my colleague, Minister of State, Andrew Doyle, and which will inform the local community, policy-makers and other interested parties.