Victor Boyhan demands transparency on public land planting

I want to thank Mr. Delaney, Mr. Dunne and Mr. Mooney, and at the very outset I just want to acknowledge the very significant work the outgoing Minister Michael Healy-Ray did in terms of forestry, I think he made progress, he was certainly passionate about it. I just want to acknowledge, look, that's politics, people move on, but I think it's important, and I'd like to acknowledge that also, the loss of Danny Healy-Ray from our committee, he certainly was a contributor, a lively contributor. At the same time I want to take this opportunity to welcome Deputy Michael Cattle from the same neck of the woods in Kerry, so I just think that's important to say, given we're specifically talking about forestry. Just two points, Barry. Firstly, I was very encouraged by the item in your own opening statement here about planting on public lands initiative, and that there are 33 public bodies have formally engaged, which has progressed, things have moved on, and there are 18 public bodies progressing formal participation, and that refers to 338 hectares. So I think what I was going to ask you, if you wouldn't mind, if it was possible, and agreeable with you and the department, that you could circulate actually who are those bodies, etc. Because I think it's important that we know, they'll be in our communities, and I think it's important that we should know that information. So I'll leave you with that. In relation to the planting on peatlands, this is very significant because previous ministers back had a different view than the last minister, and we do not know what the next minister is going to be doing, if there's even going to be a next minister, specifically for forestry. But can I ask you just to touch on the soil deemed eligible for afforestation? How is this going to feed into the program? And then you might elaborate on the department, you know, has allocated 2.7 million for the peat for project. So that's a really important project. But there's a lot of peatlands and variations of peatland within this country. There's a lot of people who own peatlands would be interested. Indeed, the state will have some forestry in peatlands. Historically, there may be moving away from that. So you might just share with us for the committee because people listening in here want to know. And I want to thank you for your correspondence, by the way, today that we received. We might just touch on the peatlands thing, particularly, and if you could, and it was agreeable with your officials and your department to send us on the locations and the public body. Well, the public bodies involved would even be enough. But I think it'd be helpful to complete the circle of communication for us. Thanks, Barry. Thanks, Deputy Boyan. So look, in terms of the planting of public lands, again, the former minister was very strong on trying to, in terms of how to meet our targets, as well as using private lands, using public lands. That was a crucial element, and he managed to get a memo to government on this. But if you allow, if you let Dr. Robert Mooney just outline where exactly we are at, and obviously we will give you the details of those parties that are involved. Great. Thanks very much, Deputy Boyan. Yeah, just to give you a quick synopsis of where we are now, I suppose. The previous minister wrote to 82 organizations that we identified through the public assets database. And he wrote to them asking them to engage with us in the first phase of the rollout of their planning of public lands initiative. So 33 of them have engaged with us already. Very happy to share that information with you. 18 already have applications in, and 15 are in the process of identifying lands. So we use the forest opportunities map to really work with them one-on-one to ensure that they can drive that forward. We've progressed to working with our colleagues in the Department of Climate to also build that into climate action, biodiversity as a key public sector measure. So we think it's really a win-win opportunity for all of us, and it's progressing really well. We're looking to a larger rollout. We've engaged with the CAROs and local authorities to a larger rollout program as well. So we're happy to share that information with you. Thank you very much, Mr. Mooney. Can we touch on the... I'll hand over to Senior Inspector Director Seamus Dunne, please. Yes, Senator, how are you? Yeah, look, so we negotiated the last program, and we came up with an agreement around peat. Clearly, drained peats emit carbon, and trees sequester carbon. So there is a balance there between, and the balance is around the depth of peat. We had signs to support planting on 30 centimeters or less of peat, that this would be a net, either neutral or a net sequester of carbon. So that's where we are at the moment, in terms of the current program. The peat for project is looking at this. This is, as we all know, this is a really complicated science, the whole area of forests, and at the rate they grow, broadleaves, conifers, how deep the peats are. So we're constantly examining this area to see what the carbon emission factors are, and trying to get the science right. So the 2.7 million peat for project is looking at exactly that. We have 800,000 hectares of forest in the country. We have to record our gas emissions, and we have to do that as accurately as we possibly can. So that's a large part of that project. So any change with any new program will be advised by science. Okay, can I just finish there, because I know I still have a bit of time. It would be helpful for this committee, if it was possible, if we could have a briefing memo on the peat for program as it is now. And I understand about following the science, but we need to keep it simple too, because we need to communicate this message to a field way beyond here. But I think given its technical nature, if we could have a briefing note to the committee, I think it would be helpful for us to just familiarize ourselves more with the peat for project. Would that be possible? Yes, of course, Senator, no problem. We'll put that together. As you know, it's quite complex matters. I don't know the track of mortgages, so I find it hard, but we'll bring that to your attention. Thank you.