Tree planting will play a vital role in climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In the past five years, we have missed tree planting targets by over 15,000 ha. We have lost the opportunity to remove 5.4 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere. Tree planting in 2021 stands at an abysmal 2,000 ha. The Social, Economic, Environmental Forestry Association states it cannot get enough licences to plant trees to increase our forestry coverage. In light of COP26, what changes will we see to address the licensing crisis? How will the Government restore confidence so that a meaningful afforestation programme can be incentivised? Will the Government take responsibility to ensure that a bespoke afforestation programme will be fully integrated into the next Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, to ensure tree-planting targets are delivered upon?

I thank the Deputy for raising a very important matter. This is an issue that the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is working on in order to respond to the issues the Deputy and other Deputies have raised in the House. Of course we are aware of the difficulties that exist with the release of licences for forestry. This year alone, 3,045 licences have been granted as opposed to 2,592 in all of 2020. We have, therefore, seen an increase in the number of licences being granted. The volume of timber that is now licensed is 87% higher than for the whole of last year. That being said, we acknowledge that we must do better on this. For this reason, there is a budget allocation for forestry of nearly €100 million. While we are doing better, we acknowledge we need to do more in the coming months.