Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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240. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to give further consideration to the appointment of a community representative, or representatives, particularly from the areas worst affected by recent storms and the damage caused by falling trees, to the recently appointed Forestry Task Force; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5101/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The Forest Windblow Taskforce, comprises stakeholders representing forest owners, forestry companies, Teagasc and Coillte. It is meeting regularly to work collaboratively and is focusing on providing practical solutions immediately to those landowners whose forests have been adversely affected and are faced with a major clean-up operation in dealing with fallen trees.

It is not intended at this stage to expand the membership of the Taskforce but it will take account of all issues raised by those affected by these storms.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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241. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the additional measures being introduced to ensure the proper maintenance of forests and plantations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5102/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The Forestry Programme 2023-2027 provides for a range of schemes that aim to support the maintenance and management of forests.

These include a forest roads scheme that facilitates the construction of new forest roads to support forest management. This provides opportunities for forest owners to create and improve access to forests to facilitate maintenance, harvesting of timber and the monitoring of and protection of forests. Forest roads also provide access to utility companies and forest owners to manage trees adjacent to powerlines.

The Woodland Improvement scheme also provides financial support to existing forest owners who wish to manage and maintain their forests to benefit the environment and the ecosystem services they provide. The Woodland Improvement Scheme has five elements; Thinning and Tending, Agroforestry Maintenance, Continuous Cover Forestry, Coppice and Coppice with Standards and finally Seed Stand Management. These schemes support forest owners to manage their forests in keeping with the principles of sustainable forest management and the protection of the environment, including water.

This year, my Department plans to launch a new iPLAN scheme for Forest Management Plans which will promote more active forest management resulting in forests that have greater capacity to deliver eco-system services, climate resilience, roundwood value and forest health vitality than those that are not subject to forest management planning practices.

It is also aims to launch a new tranche of the Forestry Knowledge Transfer Groups (KTGs) to increase the level of forest management activity amongst participating forest owners. This targets forest owners that require additional knowledge to help them undertake one or more management activities in their forests. KTGs provide the mechanism for gaining this expertise and empower them to manage their own forest over its rotation.

The management of forestry plantations is the responsibility of the owner of the land in question. Where the landowner is no longer under contract with my Department in relation to their forestry plantation, it is for the landowner to decide how and when they carry out general maintenance on their lands and there is no requirement to notify or seek approval from my Department under the Forestry Act 2014 or Forestry Regulations 2017, as amended provided such general maintenance does not entail thinning or felling for which a licence would be required under the 2014 Act.

My Department carries out regular inspections of the forest estate and if issues are found that pertain to the implementation of the Forestry Acts then my Department will work with the relevant landowners on the matter.

The Forest Windblow Taskforce, which I recently convened along with Minister Michael Healy-Rae, and which has met twice, will also consider any relevant aspects of forest maintenance that have arisen in the context of the recent storms.