Government green light for forestry spend plan

Planting 43,000 hectares of new forest and building 690 km of new forest roads is targeted in the 2015-2020 forestry programme.

The Government has approved the programme spending of €262 million, and a further €220m in future commitments from 2020, mostly in premium payments.

It is “a vote of confidence in an industry which contributed €2.3 billion to GDP in 2012,” said Tom Hayes, , Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, with responsibility for forestry.