Minister Michael Healy-Rae meets with Finnish Minister for Agriculture and Forestry and Latvian Minister for Agriculture as part of St Patrick’s Day engagements
- Foilsithe:
- An t-eolas is déanaí:
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Healy-Rae TD, is leading a series of engagements with Government and private sector representatives in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as part of his St Patrick’s Day programme.
Emphasising the importance of these engagements, Minister Healy-Rae said:
"The St Patrick’s Day festival is celebrated globally. It offers a unique opportunity for the Irish Government to build long-term relationships with our colleagues in Europe and beyond. Forests in Ireland are young, relative to our continental neighbours, and this visit offers an excellent opportunity to gain insights on different approaches to forestry.”
The Ministerial agenda includes meetings with two Ministers - the Finnish Minister for Agriculture and Forestry, Sari Essayah, and the Latvian Minister for Agriculture, Armands Krauze.
Minister Healy-Rae continued:
"I am delighted to meet Minister Krauze, and Minister Essayah to discuss areas of mutual interest, including sustainable forest management, timber innovation, and opportunities for deeper cooperation during Ireland’s upcoming EU Presidency. Forestry is a significant and vital industry for Ireland, with nearly 9,500 people employed nationally and the sector contributing €2.3 billion to the economy. Through cooperation with our European partners, I believe that we can continue to build a forestry sector that keeps growing and develops into a significant part of Ireland’s national infrastructure.”
The Minister’s visit also includes engagements with some non-profit organisations as well as companies that are active in the timber industry, including modular construction companies and manufacturers of machinery.
The Minister concluded:
"I firmly believe that we need to increase the use of timber in our construction sector and I am very pleased that, very soon, we will bring to Cabinet the final report of the Timber in Construction Steering Group, with recommendations for action to support the increased use of wood in construction, which will in turn support the house construction sector through the use of wood grown in Ireland. We have a world-class forest and timber industry right here in Ireland and we can take this to the next level through continuous engagement with our friends across Europe."
Notes
Minister Healy-Rae’s visit is taking place from 10 to 14 March with engagements in four countries, including:
- A visit to RMK – Estonia’s State Forest Management Agency. RMK is Estonia’s equivalent of Coillte. They manage 1.4 million hectares – including 1 million hectares of forest, which is half of Estonia’s forests and a third of Estonia’s total land area. RMK is a profit-making state institution which grows and manages forests, sells timber, develops visitor infrastructure, and protects forest biodiversity.
- A visit to Harmet, Estonia’s largest modular timber construction company.
- A meeting with Metsa Group, a major Finnish forest industry group and a responsible, international player operating in the entire wood value chain, utilising northern wood for sustainable products. Owned by approximately 90,000–100,000 Finnish forest owners through the Metsäliitto Cooperative, it produces pulp, paperboard, tissue, wood products, and bioenergy, employing 9,500 people worldwide.
- A site visit at the Port of Riga with Jaunzeltin and Enterprise Ireland client company Combilift, to view Combilift’s machinery in action.
- A site visit to a Latvian local timber processing company which has a focus on sustainability.
- The Timber in Construction Steering Group reports are available on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine website Timber in Construction Steering Group.