Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Senator Pippa Hackett, should resign over the delay with the new national Forestry Programme, according to the Social, Economic, Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA).
The private sector forestry group made the call following the appearance of two DAFM forestry officials before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine last Wednesday (July 5).
The officials were asked to give an update on Ireland’s forestry strategy, however the committee was suspended as members were left frustrated by a lack of information.
The Irish government has sought approval from the European Commission for its proposed new €1.3 billion forestry programme for 2023 to 2027.
The new programme is subject to state aid approval under guidelines from the commission.
Forestry Programme
Fergus Moore, DAFM senior forestry inspector, told the committee that the commission wrote to the department on June 6, and June 21, relating to its review of Ireland’s application.
“The department has recently responded in detail to the correspondence received on June 6, and is currently preparing an additional comprehensive reply to the further correspondence received on June 21, which will issue shortly,” he said.
Moore added that in-person bilateral discussions between the commission and Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan and Minister of State, Pippa Hackett took place on June 20, 2023.
Independent Senator Victor Boyhan said that the real issue was a lack of transparency about what is going on at European level when it comes to the forestry programme. He asked what concerns had been raised by the commission.
Seamus Dunne, head of the forestry inspectorate at DAFM, said it had been the department’s aim to have the forestry programme up and running “as early as possible this year”.
“Nothing from any previous state aid approval processes would have led us to believe that this process would have turned out to be as lengthy and protracted as it currently is.
“There is no doubt about the government’s commitment to forestry,” he said.
Dunne said that “intense discussion” was ongoing on several issues – nearly all of which were related to environmental concerns raised by the commission.
This included the percentage of broadleaf trees planted, the impact on farmland birds and planting on peatlands, Annex 1 habitats and high-value farmland.
When pressed by Senator Victor Boyhan, Dunne said he could not say what the department’s position was on each of the issues.
“I do know, but I can’t tell you exactly what our negotiating position is with the EU. I can share with you what the issues are,” he said.
Chair of the committee, Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill, said he could not believe what he was hearing.
“We had two years to get this policy to Brussels and here we are now six months into it. We are dealing with issues that should have been dealt with two years ago.
“We have a forestry sector that is on its knees. We have contractors looking in at this session now seeing is there light at the end of the tunnel. Whatever hope they had is disappearing very fast.
“To say that we’re appalled at what we’re hearing is an understatement, this is unbelievable that we’re here now and we’re going backwards at a rate of knots,” the Tipperary TD said.
Cahill agreed to a proposal by Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice to suspend the meeting until both Minister Ryan and Minister Hackett could attend the committee with DAFM officials and provide more clarity.
SEEFA
SEEFA, the representative body for the private forestry sector in Ireland, said that it is “outraged” that the new forestry programme has not yet been implemented.
The organisation claimed the fact that there is no operational forestry scheme for the first time since the commencement of private forestry in Ireland points to “a lack of interest” on the part of Minister Pippa Hackett in progressing commercial forestry.
SEEFA believes that the sector has been misled in relation to the proposed new forestry scheme to the detriment of its members who continued to invest in their businesses assuming the programme would be operational from January.
“This misinformation, together with the failure to ensure that the scheme was implemented by the extended deadline of January 2023, can only be regarded as negligence and a dereliction of duty by Senator Hackett.
“It is for this reason that SEEFA now calls for Senator Hackett’s resignation as a matter of urgency,” the group said.