I thank Deputies on the Opposition as well as the Government side for their support. Deputy P.J. Sheehan posed a very interesting question on what issues would arise if the matter were put to a referendum. He asked if it would be possible for the IFA and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to become members of the European Forest Institute. I understand that the EFI accepts applications for membership openly, and normally accepts those who apply. I think Deputy Sheehan's idea of having the IFA or others who are involved directly in the industry as members of EFI might be very positive. Members of the institute have the capacity and opportunities to influence the areas in which research is carried out and of course that is very important as time goes on.
I do not have a full list of member countries but I will get that information and forward it directly to the Deputy. The EFI website is very good and unlike some other websites that I have tried to access, it is fairly easy to find information on it. The quality of the research that is conducted by the EFI is extraordinarily high and because it is international it is even more beneficial.
There was a large attendance at the EFI conference held in Dublin a couple of weeks ago, with representatives from the member states and member organisations as well as people from Australia, North America and Korea.
Deputy Aylward mentioned the question of carbon sequestration which is very important and the target levels we should be hitting for forestry. He is quite right that the current level is about 10% but the target is to have 17% of the country's area covered within a short time. In 1993, there were 22,000 hectares planted, which was extraordinarily high and for a few years we had very high planting levels, but the rate of planting has been dropping at approximately 1,000 hectares per annum, with less than 6,000 hectares planted last year.
Both Deputy O'Sullivan and Deputy Aylward made the point that we need to give strong support to forestry. One of the current difficulties, and this refers to a point made by Deputy Doyle, is that the carbon sequestration capacity of forestry is not accounted for in positive terms under the Kyoto Protocol, particularly at European level, in the way it might possibly be done. One of the reasons is that Ireland is one of the few countries that has had a very dramatic growth in area under forestry in a relatively short time, particularly since the Kyoto Protocol in the early 1990s. Other countries that have static levels of afforestation would not have as much to gain from having the credits under carbon sequestration counted and that is a difficulty we are trying to address. Last week, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, attended a meeting on the issue in Sweden. It was organised for the European Commission by the Swedish Presidency and the Minister has pursued it at previous meetings of the Council of Ministers.
Deputy Scanlon is correct to say that Ireland has an extraordinary capacity to grow trees and we have all heard that there is some uncertainty over the grants for the programme. However, I took out the monthly report of the forest service for the end of August 2008 and I have the figures for the end of August 2009, which are the most up-to-date figures available. This time last year, the form 1 applications, which are the first application a farmer makes for a grant, were up by 3% on the previous year for a similar area. This year the form 1 applications are up by 82% and the area involved has increased by 45%. The same is reflected in the form 2 applications, which are used for people who seriously intend to go ahead. They were down by 23% and the area by 15%. This year it is up by 10% and the area is up by 20%. So, despite the fact that there is a lot of uncertainty, the factors mentioned by Deputies Doyle and Aylward are coming into play. Other areas in agriculture appear less attractive and people are now looking at forestry more favourably. In addition, land prices are considerably more modest than they were a year or two ago.
The level of applications for afforestation has implications for our capacity to service the schemes. Members will remember that, last year, the international and national economic situation forced us to cut the premia rates by 8% and we had to look very closely at afforestation grants. We did not cut them last year and I do not know what the budgetary position will be for 2010 but there is no reason to believe it will be better than it was last year. We are trying to argue, on the basis of the benefits of forestry for carbon sequestration, that we should make provision for an increase in the level of planting. If we achieve that it will be the first increase for several years and it will reverse a trend in which there has been a drop of 100 hectares per annum over a relatively long period.
