Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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230. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures that he will take to address the shortfall of planting 8,000 hectares of trees per year as promised in the Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58397/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I am acutely aware of the afforestation target of 8,000 hectares per year as set out in the Climate Action Plan and the fact that afforestation rates have been declining in recent years. 

To address this ongoing need, the Department has recently published a Shared National Vision for Trees, Woods and Forests in Ireland until 2050 which was informed by a series of extensive engagements and consultations.

This vision has informed a new Forestry Strategy for Ireland, which has been developed via Project Woodland.  In parallel, a draft Forest Strategy Implementation Plan was also created to facilitate the inceptive steps in the implementation of this Forest Strategy.

This Plan comprises a list of actions and measures and includes the Forestry Programme for the period 2023-2027.

This in turn will be the main implementation vehicle for the Forest Strategy in the immediate to short term.

The draft Forest Strategy and Forest Strategy Implementation Plan were published on the 18th of October and are now subject to an ongoing six-week public consultation process that concludes on 29th November 2022. Once this process has concluded, the feedback provided will help inform the final versions of these documents.

As the Deputy may be aware, my Department provides supports for afforestation, including grants and premiums and covers the cost of establishing a forest through the mechanism of the Forestry Programme.  Despite strong support for landowners over a period of 15 years, we have not yet achieved the level of planting anticipated during the current Forestry Programme.

However we hope that stemming from extensive work and consultation done to date in the development of our new Forestry Programme, that it will re-engage landowners, farmers in particular, and realise the land-use change needed. In light of this ongoing process, I am also pleased to advise that I have secured a package of €1.318 billion for forestry which will support the biggest and best-funded Forestry Programme to date in Ireland.

This is the outcome of detailed discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The Forestry Programme will also be subject to state aid approval from the European Commission and my Department is actively engaging with the Commission to progress this.

Through this new Forestry Programme & the associated funding, I hope to incentivise farmers in particular to re-engage with forestry. This can be seen in our increased proposed premia rates for tree planting. These increases range from between 46% to 66% , along with a longer premia term of 20 years for farmers, compared to 15 years for non-farmers.  Grant rates for forest establishment are also showing increases of around 20%.  It is hoped that these substantial increases will incentivise behavioural change and re-engage both landowners and farmers with forestry. 

The Forestry Programme also includes other novel elements such as for example, the innovative One-hectare Native tree scheme. The target of 8,000 hectares of new afforestation per year includes all of my Department's tree planting measures that are 0.1 hectares or more in size. This includes the aforementioned scheme and it is currently intended that this will form part of our delivery of this 8,000 target.

I am also pleased to advise that this year we have also seen considerable improvements in the issuance of forestry licences. We are now issuing more licences than applications received, and this means that the backlog continues to drop, with faster turnaround times for new applicants. The pace of processing of these applications has picked up significantly, since increased ecological specialist resources have come online with 238 licences processed in the 3rd quarter of this year, compared to 131 in the second quarter.

We have also embarked on an intensive effort to prioritise afforestation with an aim of clearing older files ahead of the new forestry programme.

It is my intention to introduce a programme which will deliver for society, for landowners and for the forestry sector in Ireland. A comprehensive and well-subscribed forestry programme has the potential to deliver lasting benefits for not just for climate change, but for biodiversity, wood production, economic development and quality of life.