An chéad cainteoir ná an Seanadóir Robbie Gallagher who is sharing time with Senator Blaney.
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Departmental Programmes
Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, ag an Roinn Turasóireachta, Cultúir, Ealaíon, Gaeltachta, Spóirt agus Meán, Teachta Byrne, ar ais chuig an Teach ar maidin. This morning, myself and my colleague, Senator Blaney, would like to raise the issue of the sports capital programme with him. As he will be well aware, this is a programme that is eagerly anticipated and awaited by every sporting enthusiast and club the length and breadth of the country. I am sure there is not a sports club in the country that has failed to receive funding through this particular fund at some point. It is eagerly awaited and has been hugely successful. Post pandemic, there is more awareness than ever about the importance of sports and what sport can do. This is not just on the sporting field but also for people's mental health and it is great to see so many people availing of the facilities. Indeed, sports clubs have to be commended on extending their facilities, not only, if it is a GAA club, for hurling or football, but they have also added on walking facilities around their pitches to facilitate the entire community. This is very much welcome and I commend them on it. It is also important to acknowledge the great volunteers who are out there. They do unselfish work in their communities day in, day out, and are the true sporting heroes in my mind. They are located in every club the length and breadth of the country. The then Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Chambers, visited counties Monaghan and Cavan last year and was very helpful in directing those clubs as to how their applications should be completed. That was hugely successful. As a result, Cavan and Monaghan received record funding of almost €5 million. It is a huge amount, which I assure the House was well spent. I issue that same invitation to the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, whenever he gets time in his busy schedule to come down. All we are waiting on now is the green light as to when this fund will be open again.
I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House this morning. To reiterate what my colleague, Senator Robbie Gallagher, has just said about this fund, this is probably one of the funds from that we get great value for money. This is not just from the point of view of sport, but also for the well-being of the people of our nation across the board. It is not just sporting people; families in general get a kick from taking part in, and seeing their kids and the young ones taking part in sport. The real good I see from this programme is how our different facilities across the country are now starting to get to a better standard. However, we have a fair way to go. With that in mind, we have been waiting since November last year for this next round to be announced. It is long beyond time it was announced. It is starting to become a biannual instead of an annual programme. It used to be an annual programme and it is time we get on with this funding. It is time that the Minister of State, as a new Minister, got on with this programme, and we would like to see that happen sooner. While his reply states it will happen this year, we want it announced yesterday. It needs to be announced as soon as possible because we are aware of the number of months it takes for applications to come in, be processed, and before announcements are made. We hope he can look on this request positively.
Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis na Seanadóirí. I thank the Senators for raising this matter. As they have outlined, the sports capital and equipment programme, SCEP, is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and recreational facilities and the also very important purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country. More than 13,000 projects have benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to in excess of €1.15 billion. I think we will all agree that the SCEP has transformed the sporting landscape with improved sports facilities in every town and village in the country funded by the scheme. The programme for Government commits to continuing the SCEP and to targeting the investment in disadvantaged areas. I am determined to see the improved investment levels continuing in the years ahead. We are also looking at areas which have a lack of facilities. That is very important as well.
A total subhead allocation of in excess of €34.5 million has been provided this year. This funding is used to advance many of the grants awarded funding under the latest round of the programme.
Although it was announced last year, the previous round started in 2020, which means it is slightly longer than biannual at this stage. Only a small proportion of that money has been spent because of issues to do with the Covid pandemic and because it generally takes time for projects to get off the ground. However, we are now starting to see a lot of that money being spent.
The final grants under that round were announced in May last year and the total allocation, as the Senators alluded to, was a record €166.6 million, which is the highest ever made. The priority in the short term is to advance successful applications to formal approval and grant drawdown and then to see those facilities put in place. The Department is constantly supporting and guiding grantees to that end. To be fair to the Department, it has a very good telephone contact system that allows anybody to make a call to inquire about clubs. Senators are welcome to use it to ask about particular facilities and help the process along.
The Senators asked about the timing of the next round of sports capital funding. Following each round, a full review is undertaken to identify any aspects of the application and allocation process that might need to be improved. The Department conducted this full review of all aspects of the 2020 round. The officials have provided a draft of that review to me and I have redrafted it. I hope to be in a position to finalise and publish it shortly. Among the various recommendations, the bottom line is the provision of more facilities. We have eased up the process substantially for applicants. In particular, we are looking towards ensuring equality in sports and equality of access to facilities. We are also looking at areas in which there is a deficit of facilities, alongside the traditional and important focus on disadvantaged areas.
Meanwhile, my officials and I are also engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform on the funding required to launch the next cycle of the sports capital programme. A formal request to open the next round has been sent to my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. There is good ongoing engagement with his Department and once that engagement is concluded, I will announce the exact dates from which new applications will be accepted. I am hopeful of having matters concluded shortly. I will continue to make the case for maximising the total funding envelope available for the programme in the years ahead. The level of demand will be a key determinant. Every effort will be made to fund as many worthwhile projects as possible, while providing a sufficient level of funding to ensure individual projects seeking support are viable.
I thank the Minister of State for his response. Deputy Donohoe is a very prudent Minister. One thing we can assure him of, as I am sure the Minister of State does every day, is that every penny spent in this area of sports funding is money well spent. I look forward to the announcement shortly of the details of the new round. I know the Minister of State would like to get on with it. I hope he gets the green light soon.
I recognise the work the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, have had to do on the sports capital programme. I hope there is an urgency in that work and that the Minister will act with urgency in getting the funds through and giving the Minister of State the go-ahead. I hope there are no more holdups on either side.
I thank the Senators. The Taoiseach said in the Dáil last week that this is among the best money the Government can spend through all its range of functions. I agree with him on that and I am certain the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is also in agreement. I am confident that when our engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform is completed, we will be ready, in accordance with the programme for Government, to open up the next round of sports capital funding. It is our intention, once the Department gives us the go-ahead, to open it up as quickly as possible. I am hopeful that will happen in a matter of weeks, with some further weeks required for the application process.
If it all goes in accordance with what my Department is seeking, which is in line with the wishes of people across the political system and in all parties, clubs will have a few short months to apply. I encourage them to think about what they want to do and how they should proceed with their applications. The forms and so on will be similar to those used during the previous round. However, one big change is that there will be a huge emphasis this time on equality and women in sport. We cannot fund projects under which women do not have the same access as men to facilities. That will pose a challenge for some organisations but I have decided this is how it will be done and I have told my officials to action it. There will be challenges in some cases but I do see how I can do otherwise.
School Enrolments
I welcome the Minister of State. Tyrrelstown is one of the youngest, fastest-growing and most diverse communities not just in Dublin West, but in the entire country. According to the 2016 census, 35% of the population were aged 15 or under and 40% of people living there were born outside the State. Residents have identified a major issue in the area to do with the provision of secondary school places. In particular, I thank Tyrrelstown Residents Community Council for its work on this matter. A report that was done during the Covid crisis, Tyrrelstown, Our Future, showed that the number one issue identified by people was the lack of a second secondary school in the area.
The Belgree and Mount Eustace estates have added approximately 2,000 residential units to the area over the past 15 years. Le Chéile Secondary School and four primary schools were opened to support that development. Over the past few years, more than 4,000 units have been in development across the areas of Tyrrelstown, Mulhuddart, including Church Fields, and the whole Blanchardstown local electoral area. Thus far, there are no schools to support that increase. Le Chéile Secondary School was oversubscribed this year by 34%. This is an area in which social cohesion is needed. There are not enough facilities and supports for young people. I recently attended the opening of The Penthouse, which is a fantastic new facility in Tyrrelstown for Foróige. We have put a lot of work into achieving that. There are not enough after-school activities or childcare provision. The area is growing at a fast pace but the provision of the social infrastructure that is required is not keeping pace.
A ten-acre site has been identified for use near Hollywoodrath and Bay Meadows. Even though a second secondary school for the area has always been identified as a necessity, an application for planning has gone in for a primary school on that site. Moreover, two further locations have been identified in the vicinity for primary schools. However, we are not seeing movement on a secondary school. There is the further complexity that the campus on which Tyrrelstown Educate Together National School, St. Luke's National School - fantastic schools with brilliant staff - and the community centre are located is part of the mess involving Western Building Systems. The primary school that is proposed to be built on the ten-acre site will be used to facilitate the movement of pupils from their current schools while they are being remediated. The site will potentially not be used as a primary school for another year or two years. This means we will not see any schools being opened in the next 12 to 24 months and there is nothing on the horizon about a new secondary school, even though it has been well flagged to everybody that one is needed.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir. For school planning purposes, the Department of Education divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a geographical information system to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including child benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity, is used for this purpose. Additionally, population and housing targets inform the Department's projections of school place requirements. Projections of post-primary school place requirements are informed by multiple factors, including primary school enrolments in the area and primary to post-primary transfer patterns.
The Department is aware of increasing pressures and demand for additional school places in Tyrrelstown. I am also aware of this pressure because some of the Senator's constituents contact me about school places in Meath East. Indeed, some of their children go to schools there. It is important to note that where enrolment pressures arise, there may be a number of factors in play.
The Department is working to establish the true extent of any capacity issues across school planning areas through ongoing discussions with school patrons and authorities. Where data indicate that additional provision is required at primary or post primary level, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may be provided through a number of methods such as utilising existing capacity, extending the capacity of existing schools or providing schools. The Department accepts the planning area of Mulhuddart-Tyrrelstown in Dublin 15 is an area of significant population growth. That is the Department's term for the school catchment area; the exact term is the school planning area. As part of forward planning, the Department has assessed school accommodation in the area.
School place requirements in the Mulhuddart-Tyrrelstown Dublin 15 school planning area, specifically the Tyrrelstown area, will continue to be kept under review. My advice to the Senator, having been involved in a number of situations in my constituency where this is an issue, is that the more information that can be submitted to the forward planning section from the Senator, parents and, in particular, school principals, the better.
By and large, the Department has done a very good job in the past number of years on forward planning. It always benefits from having more information. Having been involved in similar situations in Ashbourne, Dunshaughlin, Laytown and other areas, in all cases local school principals, in particular, were involved, along with politicians, who worked collaboratively to submit information and make sure the Department has the information that is required. As I said, the Department has, generally speaking, done a very good job. It has changed many of its practices. Information always helps and I encourage the Senator to supply it.
I thank the Minister of State. The response is disappointing. I know it is not his fault but I feel like we are going backwards. The need for a school has been identified, but the response does not acknowledge that. I will now go back to a community to tell it that despite the fact we thought there would be a secondary school and everyone was on the same page, it turns out we are not and we must now go through the process of collecting data and pushing for it. We are much further behind than we thought.
We are all aware that this is an area of significant growth. The community needs the facilities. I have previously spoken in the Chamber about the fact that none of the schools in the area have DEIS status, which is a major problem. The area requires our support from a social cohesion and integration point of view. It needs social infrastructure to help it grow. Children should not leave the community or electoral area to go to school. It is a problem that we need to sort out as a matter of urgency.
To be absolutely fair, the response to me has been a misrepresentation of what I said. I would not like it to go back that someone has said there is no school for the area. That is not what I said. What has been said is that matters have been kept under review. That is what the Department has said. That is always the case. Usually in these cases, it is not a question of whether a school is needed; rather, it is a question of when a school is needed. The idea that someone has said the school is off the agenda is not correct. The Department is well aware of this and is constantly keeping it under review. My suggestions to the Senator were to be of help, based on my own experience. Overall, my experience has been positive-----
We are supposed to be at planning permission stage. That is my point.
-----with the Department in recent years.
I welcome the students from St. Lawrence College from Loughlinstown to the Gallery.
Wastewater Treatment
I am here today to discuss a Commencement matter I raised three years ago. Here we are again. I will keep bringing it up. It concerns raw sewage going into our waterways and seas all over Ireland. I know we cannot fix anything overnight but I will keep asking about this.
At least four places in Clare are affected. I do not want to name them because that would be bad publicity for these beautiful places. The Inagh river flows through my village down to the sea in Lahinch. After heavy rainfall, I could send the Minister of State videos of raw sewage going down the river and into the sea. On numerous occasions, businesses and the beach in Lahinch have had to shut because of repeated problems with E. coli and raw sewage. There are many instances of people getting sick. A friend of mine has a child suffering from kidney failure who will forever be affected by it. Nothing is being done.
We have a lot to do and everybody wants to fix this, which is acceptable. However, what is not acceptable is that years ago, we were told Lahinch and Ennistymon would get a new plant by 2029. The EPA then issued a damning report stating that the pump station required a complete upgrade and the wastewater treatment plant resulted in significant overflows including more sewage into the Inagh river, and that work would have to be expedited. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has called for the work to take place. When will it be done?
It is not good enough. A voluntary group is sampling the water because the local authority only checked the water twice over the whole summer. As a result, we are afraid. We want everybody to come to north Clare, swim in the sea and feel safe. I feel weird saying this in public because I do not want to damn our beautiful area, but we also want it to be safe and clean. We have to prioritise places where raw sewage is going into the sea. We are not a developing country; this is a rich developed country. This is no longer acceptable.
It has to be a priority of Uisce Éireann and the State to build treatment plants in order that raw sewage is prevented from going into our rivers and seas. At this stage, it is backward and we are not a backward country. What is the Department doing about this? How can we prioritise this? I have raised the issue time and again. In the meantime, we are left to our own devices. We do not trust the water, so we are testing it ourselves.
I want to hear that we are going to do something and expedite matters, not just in Ennistymon, Inagh or Lahinch but also Doonbeg, Kilkee and all over Ireland. There are 34 places with no or totally insufficient treatment plans. Due to climate change, the way our rain falls is different. It falls more intensely, which results in storm water tanks getting full more quickly than they used to. They also store the raw sewage awaiting treatment. Everything comes out together. We know the climate has changed. One basic thing would be the installation of larger holding tanks while we are waiting for the multimillion euro payload of contractors, consultants and making a big deal of things over four years. At the very least, larger holding tanks should be installed as a short-term measure.
It is not acceptable that any village or town has to wait until 2029. We have to do better by the people. We are in government to do better and improve things. We have lots of money and are a wealthy country, and should not have raw sewage going into our waterways anywhere in Ireland. It is no longer acceptable. There are both short-term and long-term solutions but we need to expedite things and give people confidence that we are taking this seriously.
I thank Senator Garvey for raising this important issue in Lahinch and more broadly around the country. I will cut to the chase with the Senator. The Department has told me the new treatment plant for Lahinch is currently at feasibility stage, it expects to be at planning permission stage in 2024 and ready for construction in 2025. It is a €20 million to €50 million project. In the meantime, Uisce Éireann is working with the local authority and others to minimise impacts. That is the plan. The Senator is quite right; 2029 is too late. I am very pleased to be able to say that it will be delivered sooner than that. I know the Senator will keep on top of this to make sure that no part of this is missed.
The Senator is absolutely right about addressing the impact of climate change. Much heavier falls of water has an impact. I see it my constituency in Dublin Bay. As the Senator has said, local groups can be very active and helpful in drawing awareness to these different issues. In my area, we campaigned to have a UV treatment facility installed in the water in the plant in Ringsend. Over the winter, that was tested to see how much of a difference it would make. It seems that while it helps during the summer, testing over the winter found it did not have that much impact. The real issue is the River Liffey and Elm Park stream going into the bay. It was about very heavy rainfall, which the Senator mentioned, and how much the storm overflow can impact rivers. It can be the storm overflow facilities, as well as other things that are within people's control, including dog fouling on the beach. Communities can do a range of different things to try to help.
Nevertheless, Uisce Éireann has overall statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services' planning and development. The programme for Government commits to a capital investment plan for the whole country.
It is probably worth setting out that beyond Dublin Bay and Lahinch today. The national development plan up to 2030 commits to almost €6 billion of investment to be undertaken by Uisce Éireann in the period 2021 to 2025, of which more than €4.5 billion will be voted Exchequer funding in respect of domestic water services. In budget 2023, it was announced that more than €1.78 billion had been allocated to support all water services. The overall investment will deliver significant improvements in our public water and wastewater services.
The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, holds Uisce Éireann to account for its environmental performance. Since 2014, the EPA has reported up to 50 towns and villages with untreated sewage being discharged from a public sewer system. That is clearly not acceptable. That is why Uisce Éireann is focusing on resolving the legacy. Since 2014, 60% by volume of the raw sewage discharging has been resolved through targeted investment in new sewerage infrastructure. I believe Uisce Éireann is on track to eliminate the majority of raw sewage discharges by the end of 2025. The size and scale of that work is very significant with an estimated €750 million investment.
By way of update for the Seanad, Uisce Éireann has completed works to provide treatment plants at 23 locations now. In addition, construction is under way at 16 other locations across the country with a number due to finish in the coming months. Works will start at one more location before the end of this year. By the end of 2023, construction works will either be complete or under way at 40 of the 50 locations identified by the EPA. Uisce Éireann is progressing projects in the remaining ten locations and will be lodging planning applications for some of those in the coming months. Serious challenges will remain until this is resolved. Uisce Éireann is also trying to make sure that new capacity is made available for housing and the increased population and pressure that will put in place. Uisce Éireann has a plan to complete all the works at all of the plants by 2030. I am glad to have been able to provide an update specifically with regard to Lahinch.
That is very positive. That is a big jump from 2029 to 2025. I cannot wait to tell the people of north Clare who have been volunteering to try to clean the beaches and do the water testing, some of whom have gotten sick themselves, including my friend's child who got kidney failure and nearly died. That is, therefore, really positive.
Uisce Éireann has to up its game when it comes to citizens and engagement because people never know what is going on. People from Milltown Malbay are always losing their water and they ring me because there is nobody on the council or in Irish Water to ask what is going on and answer as to why they do not have water or when they will get it back. There is a communication issue. If State agencies could just improve their communication, it would make people's lives much less stressful. They get so stressed out because they cannot find out for how long the water will be gone or what the problem is and why it is brown for so long. I do my best to try to find out but sometimes I do not know if it is the local authority or Irish Water I should be talking to either. I know it is taking over but during this transition, it seems to be chaotic. Irish Water has done a lot better. We have done much more as a Government in the past three years than we have seen probably in the past 40 years. We are, therefore, improving. It is great to have positive news about the Lahinch and Ennistymon treatment plant today. I thank the Minister of State for that.
I could not agree more with the Senator regarding the way in which State agencies - I am not singling out Uisce Éireann - lean into the citizens and residents of this State and provide information to them in a really stakeholder and customer focused way to make it as easy as possible for people to access the information they deserve to have at every point in their lives. When a disruption or moment of vulnerability happens or any sort of inconvenience of this kind where we know and have the information, being able to communicate it to them really clearly should be an absolute priority.
Forestry Sector
I do not need to welcome the Minister of State because this is her House. I thank her for coming to address this issue. The focus of my Commencement matter today, and hopefully the Minister of State will deal with all this, is the need to confirm the number of forestry planting licences that have been granted since 1 January 2023. Can she confirm that Ireland has formally submitted its completed - with the emphasis on completed - application for state aid approval with the European Commission, and that the Commission has no outstanding issues regarding this application?
I do not doubt the Minister of State's personal commitment to agriculture, forestry, horticulture or any of that. She very often uses the slogan about planting the right tree in the right place. I accept all of that. The reality today, and I will make one prediction, is that the target for planting 8,000 ha of new forestry this year and every year certainly will not happen this year, and I will tell the Minister of State why. There is a failure to hit the planning targets. It threatens the future supplies of our timber. The Minister of State and I both know that. If we do not deliver on our targets, there will, of course, be implications in terms of our climate targets and aspirations and ambitions, which have been rightly set high. There is a frustration among foresters and farmers about the delays in the €1.3 million state aid plan that was unveiled by the Minister of State and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue. They are ambitious plans and I welcome the forestry plans.
Forest Industries Ireland director Mr. Mark McAuley today in The Irish Times "warned that virtually no trees would be planted in the Republic until next ... [winter] as a consequence of the promised Government supports that have ... [not materialised]." As the Minister of State knows, we cannot plant trees in the summer. It is simply too dry; it does not happen. Yes, we might get up until May but historically it does not really go beyond that. That is a challenge in itself. When was the necessary paperwork completed and lodged with the EU for consideration of the approval for the Government scheme? The Minister of State and members of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, myself included, have had much engagement on all this. They have not been easy debates and discussions. We might listen to IBEC, which has affiliated forestry groups. It said the Republic has barely reached one quarter of what the figures are expected to be. It is blaming licensing delays on the bureaucracy of Departments in all of this. I would be interested to hear the Minister of State's response to that.
I welcome the Government's decision to increase the planting of native species, which is important. I know some people in the forestry sector have an issue with that; I do not. It is important that we have our percentage. The Minister of State has set the targets for that and rightly so. They are important. When looking at the latest dashboard with which the Minister of State will be very familiar, we can see that zero afforestation licences have been issued. There have only been 5 km of road licences and the lowest volume of felling licences for 2023. That is the reality of it. What is the issue? I hope the Minister of State will elaborate on that.
I looked at figures this morning that were issued by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, under the title of who is planting the new forests. Back in 2010, which was a peak for us, 7,929 farmers planted forests over an area that covered 8,314 ha. That is interesting because that is sort of the target we are on now. Back in 2010, based on the CSO figures, we had 7,929 farmers planting 8,314 ha. That is an enormous number of hectares. When we move to 2021, the most recent figures from the CSO tell us that we have a drop from 7,929 farmers down to 360. The figure was 360 in 2021 and, of course, we see the coverage there was 2,016 ha. The Government's target is 8,000 ha. We are a hell of a long way short of all of that. I look forward to the Minister of State's response.
I thank Senator Boyhan for his continuing interest in the really important sector of forestry in Ireland. I welcome the opportunity to update him and other Senators on the progress that has been made on the application for state aid approval for the new forestry programme.
As the Senator will know, and he alluded to it in his opening speech, the Government has committed to a €1.3 billion new forestry programme, which is the biggest and largest funded forestry programme ever introduced by any government here. It has been designed to have an emphasis on close-to-nature forestry and ensure that farmers will be its primary beneficiaries.
Senators will be also aware from the many hours we have spent already discussing it in this Chamber that the forestry programme 2023 to 2027 is subject to state aid approval from the European Commission and is also subject to an ongoing strategic environmental assessment, SEA, and appropriate assessment, AA, process, which is a critical step in the process of securing state aid approval. The new state aid approval rules only came into force at the start of 2023 and we were not in a position to begin our process in advance of this. From the first opportunity when the new rules came into force, my Department has been engaging intensively with the Commission. This has involved a huge effort by all involved in my Department.
I am pleased to confirm that the formal state aid notification for the new forestry programme has been submitted and we are now awaiting formal approval of the Commission for the programme. This is not something I or my Department are in control of. It really is in the hands of the Commission but we are satisfied that we have made the best possible submission and have addressed their concerns.
Not all schemes under the programme require state aid approval under the guidelines. Earlier this week, under the agricultural block exemption regulation, my Department opened two schemes for applications, the forest roads scheme and the innovative forest technology scheme - module 2 investment aid for the development of the forest tree nursery sector. It is important to note, however, that no new approvals can issue under these or any other schemes until the appropriate environmental processes have been concluded. However, it should also be noted that all afforestation files currently in the system will continue to be processed up to the point of approval, and once we get the State aid approval we will be able to issue those licences.
While the Department cannot issue licences for grant-aided afforestation, roads or forestry support schemes until the new programme is in place, felling licences have continued to issue. To date in 2023, 957 felling licences have issued for 11,000 ha. In recognition of the need for planting activity to continue, and pending the launch of the new programme, my Department engaged with the Commission last December to secure an interim solution, which has led to the introduction of an interim afforestation scheme, via general de minimis, an interim forest road scheme and an interim ash dieback reconstitution and underplanting scheme. This ensured that those with valid licence approvals issued before the end of 2022 could avail of the current planting season under the higher grant and premium rates proposed to be paid under the new programme. To date in 2023, a total of 261 applications have been approved under the interim afforestation scheme, representing more than 1,000 ha. Under the interim roads scheme, 71 approvals have issued representing more than 27,000 m. Of the 1,583 ha approved in 2023 for afforestation under the interim scheme, over 700 ha of planting has been completed and planting has commenced on a further area in excess of 500 ha. In addition, we have in the first quarter of this year paid for the planting of 195 ha carried out under the previous forestry programme, which will also be included in the 2023 planting figures.
Forestry payments continue to issue under the old programme. In the first quarter of 2023, there has been a total spend of €42,728,570, mainly on forestry premiums for existing forests, with more than €4 million of that figure paid in grants so far this year.
I thank the Minister of State. The question was precise, and the Minister of State confirmed again that it had been submitted. I asked the Minister of State when it was submitted. Will the Minister of State just tell us when the form was completely submitted? I cannot seem to get that direct answer. It is a simple question. It is in the Commencement matter.
Secondly, there is no statement. The Minister of State's statement has not been circulated to me. Every Commencement matter is circulated. I am sitting here and this also happened the last time. Everyone is issued with the circular and I have not had the opportunity-----
I will give the Senator a copy.
I appreciate that but I have not had an opportunity to study that when I was listening to the Minister of State's four minutes.
I will finish on a few points. Forestry is in crisis. Let us face up to the fact. We are heading into May and no approvals have been given, despite all of the promises by the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and by the Minister when this strategy and plan was launched in November 2022. We are now entering into May 2023 and no approvals have been given. Forestry is in crisis.
I will finish on this point and I respectfully ask the Minister of State to do this because I have asked many times. Would she please engage with the Social, Economic Environmental Forestry Association, which has requested a high-level meeting with the Minister of State and the Minister to discuss the forestry crisis?
I thank the Senator. I do not think I need to reiterate - perhaps I do - that the issue of the state aid approval has been well flagged. It has been known since before the new year that we were awaiting the new state aid guidelines, and that we would not be able to launch a brand new scheme on 1 January, because we had to engage with the Commission and we had to seek the state aid approval. That informal process is now complete. The formal submission has been made-----
When? Give me the date.
Recently. I do not have the date.
The Minister of State is telling me she does not have the date.
I do not have the date on me. I can find it for the Senator and we can let him know.
The Minister of State is here for a Commencement matter.
The formal submission has been made and we are confident that we have addressed all of the concerns the Commission had in the informal engagement. It is unfair for the Senator to say that the forestry sector is in crisis. I have been visiting forests around the country, and most recently at the weekend in my constituency. There are a lot of happy foresters out there. We are going to have a lot of happy foresters in the future. We have a balance to strike here and we have a programme that must meet the increasingly challenged space that is environmental legislation on environmental conditions. We believe we have done that and we look forward to farmers of the future, young and old, engaging in forestry.
Cuireadh an Seanad ar fionraí ar 11.16 a.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 11.32 a.m.
Sitting suspended at 11.16 a.m. and resumed at 11.32 a.m.