Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 April 2023
324. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures that will be put in place to ensure the funding that should be spent for the next 12 months on planting, roads and so on (details supplied) will be spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20105/23]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that expenditure on the forestry programme is demand-led. The shortfall in spending in 2022 was primarily due to the anticipated level of planting not being reached, with 2,273 hectares planted against a target of 8,000 hectares.
This is often a feature of the final year of a Programme, as those with valid licences adopt a 'wait and see' attitude to see whether they would benefit from transitioning to the new Forestry Programme 2023 2027. This is borne out by the fact that at the end of 2022 there were over 1,000 approved afforestation licences with a total of 7,500 hectares where planting had not commenced.
Over 1,500 hectares of these valid approvals have opted into the interim scheme which was launched in December to enable planting take place while awaiting state aid approval for the new programme. In addition, 71 road applications representing 27,560 linear metres have been approved under the interim road scheme.
The Deputy will be aware that funding of €1.3 billion has now been secured for the next Forestry Programme. Subject to State Aid approval, this will support the biggest and best-funded Forestry Programme to date in Ireland. This funding provides unprecedented incentives to encourage the planting of trees that can provide a valuable addition to farm income and to help meet our national climate and biodiversity objectives.
It includes proposed attractive grant and premiums that will support landowners to plant trees in a manner to providing lasting benefits for many key areas including climate change, biodiversity, wood production, employment alongside enhancing societal benefits.
The Forestry Programme requires State Aid approval from the European Commission to implement. We have been working intensively with the European Commission to secure this State Aid approval for the new Forestry Programme and have submitted formally last week.
In addition to launching interim schemes for afforestation, roads and the reconstitution of ash dieback, all applications that are in the system are being worked on and processed in the normal manner, progressing to the point just before certification and approval. The aim is to have all the work completed on as many grant aid files as possible, so that approvals will be ready to issue as soon as the state aid approval is granted.
Along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, I am confident that when approval is secured the proposed new forestry programme and the accompanying €1.3 billion budget will have a major positive impact on planting targets over the lifetime of the programme.
