Forestry planting targets
Deputy Matt Carthy criticised falling forestry planting levels and the delay in renewing the forestry programme. The Taoiseach said backlog had been reduced, a new strategy was nearly complete, and substantial licensing and planting progress was under way.
I want to lodge with the Taoiseach directly my very real concerns about the direction of the forestry strategy in the State.
There is a target in the programme for Government of planting 8,000 ha of new forestry each year. Our climate action plan assumes that we have been planting 8,000 ha of new forestry, but we are only managing about a quarter of that on an annual basis. It is getting worse since the Government took office. We hear lots of rhetoric. We are working on the basis of a forestry programme that dates back to 2014 and that should have been renewed in 2020. It was not renewed at that point and is only being updated this year. The absence of that programme means that between now and March, we are unlikely to see a single tree planted. Saplings will be destroyed, and there is a real potential for job losses. Will the Taoiseach intervene to ensure that we have a forestry strategy that works and delivers?
Comment on this
Since this Government came into office, it has worked very well to get rid of a backlog occasioned by serial objections. This is a matter of which the Deputy will be aware. Those objections were not from his quarter, but there were-----
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That was felling; this is about planting.
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-----serial objectors across the board and this impacted on confidence in the forestry sector. A new strategy is being worked on by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, and the Minister of State, Senator Hackett. That strategy is nearing completion. Hopefully, we will be in a position to publish it very shortly. Meanwhile, huge resources have gone into the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which has issued 3,914 licences, or 92% of the projected average at this point in the year. There are about 7,000 ha ready for planting. There are currently 953 approved afforestation licences. The backlog was reduced from 6,000 in August 2021 to 3,700 in January of this year. It now stands at 1,639. Much work has happened since we came in. We brought in legislation. We need to drive on and get more trees planted.