Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 December 2023
289. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to detail the specific section of the specific policy document that specified a maximum peat depth of 50 cm applied to the afforestation scheme in the last forestry programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54368/23]
View answerThe afforestation scheme in the previous forestry programme outlined the types of land suitable for afforestation in the document ‘Land Types for Afforestation (2017)’.
A maximum peat depth of 50cm was applied, for certain site types only. This maximum peat depth did not apply to fertile sites classified as Grant Premium Category 2 (GPC 2) to GPC 12, nor did it apply in all GPC 1 scenarios.
This is explained in Section 3 ‘Suitable Land - GPC 1’
This section, on page 7 of this document includes the text
“Suitable Land: GPC 1 is characterised by vegetation indicative of moderate fertility, and includes the following:
1. Sites purely comprising purple moor-grass and with an average peat depth of less than 50 cm.
2. Sites comprising purple moor-grass combined with bog-myrtle, and with an average peat depth of less than 50cm”
This section also includes the text
“GPC 1 includes sites with a R+N score of 5.4 to 5.9. It also includes sites scoring 5.0 to 5.3 where the site has an average peat depth of less than 50 cm and is capable of being suitably drained.”
