Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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370. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of hectares of land that would fall under condition 63 of Ireland’s State aid approval letter from the commission in relation to afforestation, that is, sensitive habitats such as peat lands and wetlands, as well as areas of high ecological value including areas under high natural value farming are currently under forestry; the number of hectares of that forestry that is owned by Coillte; the number of hectares that are privately owned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22487/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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My Department received state aid approval letter for the Afforestation elements of the Forestry Programme in August 2023.

Among the conditions of the approval was condition 63 which reads “The inappropriate afforestation of sensitive habitats such as peat lands and wetlands will be avoided, as well as the negative effects on areas of high ecological value including areas under high natural value farming. With a view to ensuring that the carbon balance is neutral or positive, afforestation of organo mineral soils with peat depth greater than 30 cm are excluded from afforestation, afforestation of organo-mineral soils with peat depth lower than 30 cm is subject is safeguards, and afforestation of fens and cutaway peats will involve no additional drainage and be limited to native species.”

My Department set up procedures to fully comply with this condition and all new afforestation is compliant with this condition.

In relation to the existing forests these rules were not in place and many forests that were planted in the past were planted on site types that would not comply with condition 63.

The main findings from the most recent National Forest Inventory (2022) indicate that 38.4% of existing forests are located on peat soil. The NFI also estimated that nearly half (48.2%) of the forest areas have one or more environmental designation. It is not known what proportion of existing forests would have been categorised as wetlands or high nature value farming at the time of planting.