Pauline Tully
Question:184. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the weekly targets for forestry licensing by type in 2022. [7075/22]
View answerThursday, 10 February 2022
Questions (184)
Written answers
My Department 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. Forest roads enable the haulage of timber from harvested forests.
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 finalised and has been published. The licensing plan contains a target of 5,250 licences issues, which is a year-on-year increase of 30% including:
- A higher priority will be given to afforestation licences for 2022 with a 107% increase in output up to 1,040.
- There will be a year-on-year increase of 48% of private felling, roads and afforestation files. Coillte felling licences will maintain the levels they achieved in 2021.
- The Department will also refocus on the delivery of most approvals from several schemes including Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) (Ash Dieback), the Reconstitution of Woodland Scheme (Frost), the Native Woodland Scheme and a proposed small-scale planting scheme for up to one hectare of native species.
Along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, my priority this year is 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.