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Forestry Sector

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 February 2022

Thursday, 3 February 2022

Questions (476)

Holly Cairns

Question:

476. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he is taking to address the backlog of forestry licences. [5797/22]

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Written answers

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued 4,050 forestry licences last year, which is an increase of 56% on the number issued in 2020 .

In terms of the categories of each type of licence issued, these approvals included 2,877 felling licences. Critically, the availability of this volume of timber, at nearly 8.5 million cubic metres, stabilised supply to the processing sector in 2021. This is the highest volume ever issued in a single year.

In addition, 264 kilometres of forest roads were licensed, more than double the target in the Climate Action Plan 2019. This is also the highest ever volume of forest roads issued in a single year. The number afforestation licences remained static, with 502 afforestation licences issued, which represents 4,245 ha of forestry.

At the beginning of January 2022, the Department had 4,803 licence applications on hand. This figure has reduced from 6,100 in August 2021. There will always be applications in the system, making their way from application stage to a licence. The Forestry Licensing Plan for this year is currently being finalised and will be published shortly. It will build on the momentum achieved in 2021 and will focus on increasing the number of afforestation licences issued. We will continue to keep resources under review and will implement all practical process improvements which result from the review and analysis in train under Project Woodland.

Afforestation has not improved as we would like with just over 4,200 ha approved last year. Improving afforestation licensing is a key priority for 2022. A greater concern for all of us must be that the number of afforestation applications has continued its downward decline in 2021.

Reversing this trend, I believe requires a concerted effort now, from everybody with an interest in seeing more trees planted in Ireland. 2022 will be a big year for farmers, with the arrival of a new CAP and new Forestry Programme and it is important that the benefits of afforestation are well understood by them. My Department is, as always, ready to play its part and assist in improving communications. We understand of course that licensing forestry activities has a role to play hence the importance attached to improved licensing output in 2022. However, positive messaging around the benefit of afforestation is the responsibility of all, particularly those with a direct line of communication to farmers and landowners.

Along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, I remain fully committed to delivering a licensing system which will meets the needs of the sector and of society and recent licensing trends demonstrate that we are making progress towards achieving this.

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