Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 May 2021
695. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to address the forestry licensing crisis given that project woodland will not have any immediate impact on the current situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25602/21]
View answerI am fully aware of the issues facing the forestry sector and the timber industry and no efforts have been made to address them. The Department has invested heavily in both ecologist and forestry Inspector resources to meet the needs of the licencing system and this has resulted in gains in licensing output.
To 7th May 2021 1,085 new forestry licences have issued this year, which is 11% up on the total number issued to in the same period in 2020. Across all licence types, improvements in delivery of decisions can be seen compared to the same time last year. Felling licences are up 1% in number issued and 29% for the volume of timber. To date in 2021, the Department has issued felling licences for 1,937,931 cubic metres, which is 40% of the total volume issued last year. To date, 100km of forest roads have been licensed, which is 80% of the commitment given to license 125km of forest roads this year. Finally, the area of afforestation licensed is up by 16% to date at 1,937ha.
Through Project Woodland, there is now a dedicated working group around the Backlog and establishing KPIs and a separate working group charged with examining our internal processes that includes an end-to-end review of systems to ensure that they are made more efficient and are environmentally robust. We have recruited project management expertise and are recruiting a systems analyst expertise to assist in this process.
While Project Woodland is in progress, work continues with the Department to build on recent gains. For instance, we are implementing internal changes to improve output including training, increased assistance to ecologists in the preparation of files, improved IT resources for ecologists and other system improvements. In addition, we are engaging intensively with the sector who also have a role to play by is focusing on improvement in the quality and consistency of applications and subsequent information including NISs.
Overall, we have set ourselves a target to issue 4,500 licences in 2021 which is a 75% increase on 2020 and we fully intend to meet this target. I remain 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.
