Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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133. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will report on the recent comments by the Minister of State with responsibility for forestry regarding the planting of trees on peatlands; to clarify whether Government policy has changed; his views on whether forestry should be planted on peatlands; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25608/25]

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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142. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine will he clarify that the Forestry Programme 2023-2027 and any future programme will not include afforestation on deep peatlands; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25623/25]

Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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144. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on allowing forestry on peatlands despite the environmental impacts of doing so; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25494/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 133, 142 and 144 together.

The subject of planting forests on peats soils is not black and white. Forests planted on peat soils can contribute to climate, biodiversity and timber production. This is a fact.

I am not in favour of planting on deep peat sites where there is a net carbon emission or planting important peat habitats, blanket bogs, raised bogs and other important habitats on peat soils. These will remain unplanted.

The current Forestry Programme, which has not changed in relation to planting on peat, allows for the planting of peat soils on the basis that there will be net carbon sequestration from these forests.

However, I believe that there may be scope to examine potential for forests on types of peats soils that would have a positive or neutral contribution form a carbon point of view. We need to explore further all the opportunities to plant. The question is being asked, are there soils that are currently excluded from planting under our current programme that will have a positive contribution from a carbon, biodiversity and timber perspective. To examine this more Ireland needs more science to support our decisions.

The position is that the State Aid Approval we have for our forestry programme prohibits planting on deep peat soils. On the other hand, it permits planting of commercial forest and native woodlands on shallower peat soils, less than 30 cm deep, and some midland fen peats planted with native woodlands.

The critical thing is that whatever we do, whatever changes we make to this or in any future Forestry Programme, it needs to be informed by the science. Growing forests on peat and the consequences in relation to carbon is complex. All trees, as they grow, store an increasing amount of carbon, but peat that is drained emits carbon. There has been a lot of research into this area but more needs to be done.

My Department is investing €2.7 million on research into this area of forestry on peat soils, that will help inform policy on how we manage such soils in the future. The title of the project is “PeatFor – Management of peatland forests for climate, biodiversity and water quality”. This project runs for the next four years and we hope to have preliminary results within two years.

In relation to any future Forestry Programmes, these will have to be agreed with the EU Commission, and it will be important that whatever we propose as part of that programme that we will be able to back it up with science and common sense.

For many very good reasons, we need to plant lots more trees. They can contribute to economic development, and employment creation, provide timber for use as an alternative to less climate friendly construction materials, and provide a valuable public amenity. But of course, we also want to ensure that these trees make a positive contribution to biodiversity and to our climate change mitigation efforts, and we will continue to work through the science to ensure that we have more trees that can contribute to all of these objectives.