Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Table below shows Sitka Spruce planting in each year from 2010-2023.

My Department is addressing the previous decrease in overall afforestation levels, (including that of Sitka Spruce). This includes launching the best funded, most attractive and most environmentally sustainable forestry programme for the years 2023-2027. My Department has also addressed the licensing issues which were previously impacting on recent planting levels. We now have a diverse forestry programme in place which offers farmers and other landowners an attractive and viable land use option, with 15 year premiums for non-farmers and 20 year premiums for farmers.

In November last year, Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett appointed a new Steering Group to increase the use of timber in construction. This new Interdepartmental & Industry Steering Group on Timber in Construction brings together industry and government Departments to assess the needs of the sector and to increase the use of timber in construction. The group is tasked with examining potential obstacles to increasing the use of timber, including regulatory and standardisation challenges, and to maximising the use of home-grown timber.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has published a Forestry Licensing Plan which outlines our strong commitment to issuing licences in 2024. We estimate that we will issue 1,000 new afforestation licences in 2024, which indicates an average of 19 licences per week, but there will of course be fluctuations from week to week. We currently have 454 afforestation licence applications on hand, and we are steadily working through issuing approvals for these.

We believe we now have the capacity to issue sufficient licences to meet the annual target of 8,000 hectares of new forests. This is however contingent on receiving enough applications to achieve this goal. I am confident that the attractive and increased rates under the new Programme, coupled with 20 year premiums for farmers, will encourage strong uptake of afforestation options.

It is worth noting that 1,599 hectares have been approved for afforestation since the new Scheme opened in September.As regards 2023, my Department issued 88 new afforestation licences. The delay in receiving State Aid approval to the new Forestry Programme meant that we could not issue licences for grant-aided new forests or forest roads until the introduction of the new Forestry Programme on 6th September, 2023 and this explains the lower than expected figures.

However, in recognition of the need for forestry activity to continue and pending the launch of the new Programme my Department introduced the Interim Afforestation and Roads Schemes. This allowed those with unused licences under the old Programme to use them by opting into a De Minimis scheme and availing of new and improved rates. In 2023 a total of 288 applications for 1,750 hectares were approved under the Interim Afforestation Scheme.

Furthermore those with licences under the old Programme, who did not opt for De Minimis, have the opportunity to opt into the new Afforestation Scheme. 98 such afforestation applications for 845 hectares were approved in 2023.

In the interest of full transparency, details of all licences issued by category are available on my Department's weekly dashboard. This is published on the Departmental website and is made available to all interested parties, as well as being submitted to the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine each week.