Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department’s agri-environment scheme, ACRES, requires an agricultural activity on the parcels included in a farmer’s contract, as set out in the Terms and Conditions of the scheme.

Notwithstanding this, the new CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 (CSP) allows for areas of established woodland to be regarded as a beneficial feature in agricultural parcels, thus allowing for these pockets of woodland to be paid under ACRES, in certain circumstances.

Officials from my Department, together with the ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) Teams, developed a suite of ten scorecards, to enable the scoring of ACRES CP participant lands, including a woodland/scrubland scorecard. This scorecard is applied to pockets of established woodland or scrub habitats, and has the potential to reward a farmer depending on the score received.

This woodland under ACRES is separate from Forestry established under my Department’s Afforestation Scheme, which is not eligible for payment in ACRES. However, farmers that have established forestry under the Forestry Programme would of course receive annual premiums as appropriate, and may also have retained entitlements, depending on eligibility requirements.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Forestry Programme 2023-2027 provides a range of schemes to support the establishment and management of forests. Ireland's recently published Forest Strategy recognises the importance of forests and the wide range of ecosystem services they provide. Sustainably managed forests also make a significant contribution to the rural economy and contribute to Ireland's climate targets by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through sequestration and the storage of carbon in harvested wood products.

Recognising the importance of managing forests the €1.3 billion Forestry Programme provides a range of measures to support forest owners. For example, my Department will provide funding under the Woodland Improvement scheme and Native Woodland Conservation Scheme to support existing forest owners in the management of broad-leaved forests. The Forestry Programme will also introduce on a pilot basis payments for Ecosystem Services with premium payments over a seven year period to existing forest owners who successfully enter the Continuous Cover Forestry and Native Woodland Conservation Scheme.

To facilitate the management and haulage of timber my Department has launched a forest roads scheme that facilitates the construction of new forest roads to support forest management. Forest owners can receive €55 per linear metre for new roads constructed. This will provide opportunities for forest owners to create or improve access to forests to facilitate sustainable forest management, including the harvesting of timber. My Department will also launch in 2024 a forest management plan scheme to provide funding to forest owners to prepare plans which will support certification and applications for licensing.

Details of all schemes available under the new Forestry Programme 2023 – 2027 are available on my Departments website gov.ie- Forestry Grants and Schemes (www.gov.ie).