European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness says Ireland needs to plant more trees.
The country was planting around 20,000 per year in the mid 1990s, but by 2022 it was down to around 2,000 new trees.
The EU has committed to planting three billion trees across Europe by 2030.
Mairead McGuinness wants to see Ireland go much further, noting; “It’s important for our member states to do it so the European Commission’s drive to see more trees planted and really they’re planning for the future because those trees won’t have a massive impact as they are very tiny but they will grow and in time they will do their work around climate and biodiversity and if we don’t start now we won’t get to that future that we absolutely need”.