Some 189 individual claimants availed of a total of €77 million in Stamp Duty relief from transactions on forestry last year.

This figure was revealed by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe in answer to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin Meath East TD Darren O’Rourke.

These figures show a general increase in the value of Stamp Duty relief being claimed in forestry transactions over the last 10 years.

Notably, since 2017, the total value of relief has increased by almost €40 million, but in the same period the number of claimants have in fact decreased.

Deputy O’Rourke also queried the value of tax reliefs in relation to forestry over a similar period, including income tax; corporations tax; capital gains tax; VAT; and gift an inheritance tax.

In his response, Minister Donohoe assumed maximum tax cost of 40% for income tax and 12.5% for corporation tax.

O’Rourke also asked the minister for the reasons in offering these reliefs for forestry, to which the minister responded by quoting the 2014 ‘Agri-Taxation Review: Report of the Agri-Taxation Working Group to the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine’.

This stated that: “Forestry plays a key role as a carbon sink, helping to mitigate the increase in greenhouse gas emissions from other sectors of the economy.

Finally, Minister Donohoe also noted the 2018 ‘Progress Implementation Update of the Agri-Taxation Review 2014’, which said that in order “to assist environmental sustainability, profits or gains from the commercial occupation of woodlands [should] remain tax exempt”.