Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 January 2022
2006. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of forestry licences issued by type and week in each of the years 2016 to 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2142/22]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware licence output in my Department was affected by Court judgements and their interpretation which led to a much more onerous Appropriate Assessment procedure and the need for ecological input for the majority of licences.
This is reflected in the decreased number of licences issued in 2020. In order to address the delays which had arisen due to these changed circumstances, my Department invested heavily in additional resources and in process improvements, to increase licence output.
This has had the desired effect with a marked increase in the number of licences issued last year, at 4,050 forestry licences, and this met the target which we set ourselves. This included 2,877 felling licences at a volume of nearly 8.5 million cubic metres, the highest volume issued in a single year, and forest road approvals for 264 kilometres, more than double the target set in the Climate Action Plan 2019.
Along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the forestry sector, we are aware of the need to increase the number of afforestation licences and this will be a focus in our 2022 licensing plan, which we will be publish shortly.
Improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of the licensing process are also being dealt with under Project Woodland, and of particular interest its the Legal and Regulatory Review of forestry licencing, a report on which is due in February. We are also rolling out a pilot for Pre-application discussions in order to help improve the quality of afforestation applications.
As regard the statistics requested, my Department publishes a range of these on its website, including the number of forestry licences issued by each type. This data is available monthly at this link gov.ie - Forestry Division Monthly Reports (www.gov.ie ) and is copied in the attached for ease of reference.
