Minister for Environment Eamon Ryan has said that forestry on mountainous peaty soils was planted in the wrong place.

He said that a great change was made in Ireland by going from 1% or 2% forestry cover at the foundation of the State to reach 11% today.

“It is no fault of anyone, and I am not putting the blame on anyone, but those forest systems were put in the wrong place,” he told the Dáil last week.

“Typically, they were put up high on the mountains where we were draining peaty soils. The nature of the forestry, involving clear fell, monoculture and fast-rotation cycles, does not enhance nature. It does not improve water quality. It does not protect and encourage biodiversity. This needs to change,” he said.

The minister said that the climate change assessment on land use keeps changing.

“We only really discovered in recent years the downside of the forestry programme. We had to amend our plans at the last minute to adjust to what the science was telling us,” he said.

He said that the Government should “admit uncertainty” as it starts devising plans.

“We should admit that we have to learn by doing. No one has the magic secret formula and no one will tell anyone else what the exact approach is,” he said.