Ireland's existing forest estate is an important and expanding supply of timber for the construction sector with significant amounts of timber exported to the UK and abroad. The recent COFORD "All Island Roundwood Production Forecast" predicts that the annual potential supply of roundwood timber will increase from around 5.6 million in 2023 to 7.9 million cubic metres by 2025. This supply of home grown timber has the potential to play a significant role in the construction of houses in Ireland. My Department has also established a new Timber in Construction Steering Group which is focusing on providing more opportunities to use more of our home grown timber in construction. This group has a number of areas they are examining such as regulations and standards, including markets and procurement.
The new €1.3 billion funded Forestry Programme 2023-2027 will provide significant funding to implement Ireland's new Forest Strategy which was published last year. The Forest Strategy places a strong emphasis on the importance of wood and its role in locking up carbon.
The Forestry Programme includes an annual afforestation target of Ireland's and contains a number of attractive forest establishment options. A number of forest establishment measures highlight the importance of conifers for timber production and these forests will further add to projected timber supply in the coming years. Broadleaved forests will take longer to mature, but will too provide valuable hardwood for use in construction in the future.
I am committed to working with all stakeholders to achieve our targets in a sustainable manner to provide lasting benefits.
