Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 July 2021
612. Deputy Michael Lowry asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 332 to 334, inclusive, of 30 June 2021, when he will instruct his Department to seek the necessary permissions in view of his reply that to make the submissions public his Department would first have to seek the permission of the consultees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37395/21]
View answerNew interim ‘Standards for Felling and Reforestation’ were circulated to the sector in October 2019. These Standards immediately replaced measures relating to felling set out in the existing standards ‘Forest Harvesting & the Environment Guidelines (2000)’. The ‘Standards for Felling and Reforestation’ from October 2019 is still the current document today.
This new standards document sets out the standards that apply to all felling (thinning and clearfelling) and reforestation projects on all sites throughout Ireland, undertaken under a felling licence issued by the Department under the Forestry Regulations, 2017 (S.I. No. 191/2017).
When released in October 2019, comments on the document were sought from stakeholders and I understand ten submissions were received. Many of the comments suggested textual changes to improve the practical implementation of various measures set out in the document.
The Department has, in the past, released submissions from consultees in relation to its consultation processes. In relation to the consultation process around the Standards for Felling and Reforestation, when requests for submissions were sought, it was not stated that these submissions would be made public. To now make these submissions public, the Department would first seek the permission of the consultees.
The Department is committed to updating this document and under the ‘Implementation of the Mackinnon Report’, the updating of Forest Standard documents is a key deliverable under Project Woodland.
I will be guided by those involved in this work and will consider any recommendation from those involved regarding any consultation process and whether it is deemed necessary to seek permission to publish submissions received over a year and a half ago at this point or whether it be more appropriate to ask for fresh submissions that would be published on the website.
