Tree-planting will fall far short of Government targets again this year, the forestry industry has warned, as a new report recommended increased use of timber in construction.
Forestry Industries Ireland (FII) predicted at the weekend that the Republic would only plant 2,000 hectares of new timber for the second year in a row, just a quarter of a Government target of at least 8,000 hectares. The warning comes just days after the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage published a report calling for new measures to boost the use of timber in building.
Mark McAuley, FII director, noted that it compares to 15,000 hectares of planting in Scotland, where 75 per cent of the houses built are timber-framed, compared with 24 per cent here.
A shortage of timber in recent years helped drive up the material’s price and contributed to construction inflation.
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The Oireachtas report called on the Departments of Housing and Agriculture to work on streamlining the current forestry licensing system, which requires separate permits for planting, cutting and building roads to transport timber.
Instead the committee argues that one licence should cover all three activities, and maintains that the current system is “overly structured and too academic”. Scotland requires only one licence.
Its report also says that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage should consider revising building regulations to provide clear and consistent guides to using timber safely in construction.
The committee also urged the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement to revise public contracting rules to encourage the use of “low-carbon construction materials”.
During the hearings that led to the report, the Office of Public Works (OPW), which is responsible for all Government buildings, noted that forestry was a key way of cutting carbon in the atmosphere. The OPW observed that trees absorb the gas, the main cause of climate change, as well as producing oxygen.
The committee noted that other EU countries have high-quality timber-framed housing that is energy efficient and cheap to build. Around 37 per cent of carbon emissions stem from construction and existing buildings – increased use of timber would reduce this.
Mr McAuley said the Government and Department of Agriculture needed to boost tree-planting and change building regulations to increase the use of timber in construction. “We should be building more of our homes and other buildings with home-grown Irish timber,” he added.
At the same time Mr McAuley maintained that a vibrant market for timber would boost planting rates. He said that luring more farmers back into forestry was the best solution to the ongoing debate over agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The Republic has 11 per cent forest cover, but aims to increase this to 18 per cent by 2050 to bring it more into line with the rest of Europe.
The Government’s Climate Change Advisory Committee frequently points out the need to accelerate tree-planting and timber-building.
