Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 October 2021
941. Deputy Michael Lowry asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 679 of 21 September 2021, the dates on which the applications which were returned were received by his Department in tabular form; the reason such files were not returned to the applicants at the time of receipt of the applications if sub-standard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51237/21]
View answerThe Deputy refers to a triage exercise carried out on tree felling licence applications on hand. This exercise examined the undecided applications received from 1st May, 2017. In 50% of the files reviewed, the harvest plan was deemed to be of sufficient quality and therefore proceeded. This has been the basis for the very high number of felling files issued to private applicants recently.
Where the harvest plan was found to have gaps or where no harvest plan was submitted these were returned to the registered forester (or forest owner where there was no registered forester) with individual feedback on how this could be rectified. These referrals were made over a few days starting on 24th June 2021.
Some of these are now being returned to the Department and are progressing to licences and I would urge any foresters or applicants with outstanding requests for information to return them as soon as possible.
The above exercise is now a permanent feature of our approach to processing felling files and will lead to better processing of such files.
The table below indicates the number of applications concerned for the year received. A further breakdown by date received is not available.
|
Year |
Applications |
|
2021 |
12 |
|
2020 |
154 |
|
2019 |
223 |
|
2018 |
30 |
|
2017 |
1 |
|
Total |
420 |
