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Forestry Sector

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 November 2021

Tuesday, 30 November 2021

Ceisteanna (742)

Dara Calleary

Ceist:

742. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on whether CAP 2023-2027 is an ideal opportunity to incentivise afforestation to meet both the Programme for Government, Food Vision 2030 and the Climate Action Plan Afforestation targets which have not been met for many years due to the exclusion of afforestation from CAP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58254/21]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Afforestation rates have seen a decline in recent years and there are many reasons for fall-off in interest in planting, including negative perceptions of forestry, competition for land and regulatory difficulties. It will be the challenge of the next Forestry Programme to incentivise and promote forestry.

As set out in the Programme for Government, this Government is committed to a new national Forestry Programme. The aim is that this new Forestry Programme will highlight to farmers that forestry can represent a valuable and complementary income stream to an active farming enterprise.

The new Forestry Programme will be the main implementation vehicle of the new Forest Strategy which is currently being developed as part of the work of Project Woodland. The new strategy will be based on a national shared vision.

A comprehensive consultation process for the new vision and strategy have commenced and I would like to invite everyone who has an interest in forestry to actively participate in this consultation exercise.

The new Forestry Programme will again be funded nationally and will be subject to State aid approval by the European Commission.

Due to the long-term nature of forestry, it is not proposed to include forest planting measures in the new CAP measures, however, as the CAP framework normally sets the requirements for the new EU State aid Guidelines, there will be close alignment between the two programmes.

In respect of the integration of forestry and the next CAP, as outlined in the CSP draft interventions that have been published by my Department, several tree planting measures have been proposed to be included in the CAP Strategic Plan.

The new Forestry Programme and the new CAP will provide opportunities to further align agricultural support schemes and forestry, to better integrate planting into the farming system, and to remove any barriers to uptake.

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