Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 April 2021
214. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on increasing the resources and staff of the forestry appeals and licensing process to ensure that all licences and appeals are processed in a timely manner including the clearing of the substantial backlog. [20862/21]
View answer215. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the details of the average waiting times for licensing applications and appeals in the forestry appeals and licensing process between 1 September 2020 and 31 March 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20863/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 214 and 215 together.
I am aware of the issues facing the forestry sector and the timber industry and considerable efforts have been made to address them. Additional resources have been recruited including 21 new ecologists and training, information and guidance has been provided to both Departmental staff and registered foresters and, as a result, we have seen gains in terms of output.
The introduction of Project Woodland, recently launched by Minister of State Pippa Hackett, with responsibility for forestry, is our strategy for resolving the licensing issues. This new structure aims to ensure that the current backlog is addressed. The Project involves a review and refresh of our processes and procedures and includes outside stakeholder participation to bring an independent perspective. It is a task-driven process, with clear deliverable and milestones.
It is worth noting that there are always licences in the system at various stages of processing. These are the initial stages of an application being made, while the registered forester finalises application documents to referral to prescribed bodies, referral to the inspector and/or ecologist/archaeologist, to making final decision. Applications may also be returned to the applicant (and their registered forester, where relevant) for further information. A target to issue 4,500 licences in 2021 has been set which is a 75% increase on 2020.
The total number of tree felling licences issued to end March this year is up 56% on last year and up by 20% on felling licences issued. For afforestation licences, while the number of licences issued is down slightly on last year, the area licensed is up by 18%. Forestry road licences have far exceeded those issued to end March last year, the number issued is up 102% and the length of road licensed is up by 147% at over 75km. In total to date in 2021, my Department has issued 957 licences to end March.
The average time for a tree felling licence to issue, for those decisions issued from September 2020 to March 2021 is 11 months; for afforestation licence decisions, it is 9 months; and, for forest road licence decisions, it is 8 months.
The Deputy will be aware that the Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC) is independent of my Department.
Since the new Act was introduced, the FAC has issued decisions on 297 licences that were appealed with the average time from appeal to decision taking ten months.
There are currently 253 appealed licenses with the FAC of which 23% have been heard and the committees are finalising their decisions. A further 32% of the cases are scheduled to be heard in the coming months. I expect the remaining cases will be heard by 30th July, following which, I envisage there will be scope to turnaround the upcoming appeals within an average of a two-month period.
I remain hopeful and confident that the changes presented under the Project Woodland structure to processes within my Department will bear fruit, particularly to give confidence to all applicants that they can receive a timely decision on their forestry licence application.
