Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 March 2021
1063. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of the commitment made at a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and the Marine that the age of licensees would be made known at the time of issue; when this is due to commence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11319/21]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that Ms. Jo O’Hara was commissioned to prepare a plan to implement the Mackinnon Review. Ms. O’Hara’s report has been received and may be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/e43d8-forestry-policy-group-chaired-by-mos-hackett/.
On foot of Ms. O'Hara's report, Minister Hackett and I announced on 25th February 2021 the establishment of Project Woodland which will adopt the project management structure set out in Ms. O’Hara’s report.
This project management structure will consist of a Project Board, Project Manager and four individual workstreams working with the principles of clear accountability and reporting. The workstreams will work concurrently, focusing on different areas. The first one will concentrate on the backlog, the second on a vision for forestry, the third on devising a fit for purpose organisational structure, including organisational development, and the fourth on streamlining the licensing process for the future.
One element of the plan is improved data processing including the introduction of additional KPIs and an expanded forestry licensing dashboard; the Joint Oireachtas Committee receives the dashboard weekly in its current format. This work on revising KPIs and the dashboard will take place in the context of the workstream groups which will be set up shortly. It will include better data management and processing and I expect to be reporting on progress there as soon as it's available.
