Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 June 2023
484. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will, given the historical treatment of our forests, invest more money in protecting our forests and planting more trees. [29648/23]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware, a new and ambitious €1.3bn Forestry Programme 2023-2027 will replace the previous programme which expired at the end of 2022.
The new programme is subject to State Aid approval under the Guidelines from the EU Commission. It is also subject to an ongoing Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment process, which is well advanced. My Department has been engaging proactively and intensively with the Commission over the last few months in order to secure approval which will allow new forestry schemes to be launched.
The next Forestry Programme will be the best funded Programme to date and will reflect the feedback received from the extensive public consultation undertaken for the new Forest Strategy which is due to be published shortly. Proposed premium rates for afforestation have increased between 46% and 66% and farmers will now receive 20 years of premiums rather than 15.
I am pleased to report that the Programme also proposes to offer attractive supports to forest owners to assist them in the sustainable management of their forests. These supports include a Continuous Cover Forestry Scheme which helps to diversify the management of existing forests.
We plan to introduce a new iPLAN scheme for Forest Management Plans which will promote more active forest management resulting in forests that have greater capacity to deliver ecosystem services, climate resilience, roundwood value and forest health vitality than those that are not subject to forest management planning practices. We will support this by paying forest owners €1,200 towards the cost of their Forest Management Plan.
In the past three years my Department has made payments in excess of €200 million to thousands of forest owners in Ireland. I recognise the key role that forestry can play in our fight against climate action and in supporting the economy of rural Ireland. I am confident that the financial supports offered through the next Forestry Programme will demonstrate my commitment to investing in the creation of new forests and the protection of our existing estate.
