Ireland's forestry sector is in "total disarray" with just a fraction of planting targets being met, the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) has warned.
Ireland's annual planting target laid out in the Climate Action Plan is 8,000 hectares of afforestation per year.
However, CCAC Chairperson Marie Donnelly said the current rate of planting trees is somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 hectares per year.
She said the challenge lies in convincing those who own land to invest in forestry.
She told the Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: "Forestry is a real source of concern for the Council.
"We have a forestry programme in the country, we have really good financial support for it, and our forestry is in total disarray.
"It’s a real challenge to understand and deal with the reluctance of those who have land, farmers and others, to invest in forestry.
"We really do need it - not only because of biodiversity - but in an economic perspective, we can grow wood here which we can use in building houses and in other formats where we can embody the carbon in the wood products.
"We have the capacity to do it but we’re just not planting enough trees."
Ms Donnelly said Ireland needs a mixture of species of trees, and that it was highly important that they are planted on sites that are well-thought out and developed.
"We need the right tree in the right place, but it’s a real nut to crack to know how we’re going to be able to increase the volume of forestry being developed in the county.
"We have policies, we have money, it’s just not happening."
Electric Vehicle Grant
Ms Donnelly reiterated the CCAC’s call for the Government to provide an additional €10,000 in grants to low-income households for the purchase of electric vehicles.
"We have provisions at European level for zero-emission vehicles to be put on the market by 2035. that means our fossil fuel fleet will be out of date by then.
"Our recommendation is to start now, moving people into low-emission, zero-emission transport possibilities so they can get the benefit from now and not the middle of the next decade," she added.
