Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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878. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide support to farmers in communities ahead of investment companies and vulture funds (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7333/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has secured funding of €1.3 billion for the next Forestry programme 2023-2027. Subject to State Aid approval, this will support the biggest and best-funded Forestry Programme to date in Ireland. This Programme will replace the previous Forestry Programme of 2014-2020 (extended to 2022), which expired at the end of 2022.

This new Programme was created in alignment with Ireland’s new draft Forest Strategy and as such, is designed to provide lasting benefits for many key areas including climate change, biodiversity, wood production, employment alongside enhancing societal benefits. The Forestry Programme 2023-2027 will provide incentives for farmers and other landowners and will provide farm families with the opportunity to increase and diversify their income streams.

The Government’s preferred model of afforestation is for farmers to plant trees on their land, which is why we have designed the new Forestry Programme in a way that will pay farmers 33% more in annual premium payments than any other landowner, on top of the single farm payment, which non-farmers will not receive.

Currently, the Forestry Programme 2023-2027 is subject to an ongoing Strategic Environmental Assessment/Appropriate Assessment (SEA/AA) process. Within this process, the draft Forest Strategy Implementation plan, containing the Forestry Programme was published on the 18 October 2022 for a six-week period of public consultation. My Department is currently collating and integrating feedback from more than 150 submissions on the Forest Strategy Implementation Plan. The Forestry Programme 2023-2027 also requires State Aid to implement and we are intensive engagement with the Commission in order to progress State Aid approval.

I am committed to working with all our stakeholders to substantially increase our afforestation rates over the next decade. However, I believe that the increased incentives on offer to farmers demonstrates our continued commitments to farmers and rural communities.