Minister of State for land use and biodiversity Pippa Hackett has been told that farmers will “press pause on forestry” if significant improvements are not forthcoming from the new forestry strategy.
Minister Hackett launched ‘Project Woodland’ at the end of last month to tackle the many issues currently facing the forestry sector, not least of all the delay in licencing approvals.
Tim Cullinan, the president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said that he “will hold Minister Hackett to account on her statement that farmers will start to see delivery from Project Woodland within 12 weeks”.
We will give the project board and the working groups this time to start to deliver on the recommendations in the plan, but…farmers will be pressing pause on forestry if they don’t see significant improvement during this time.