Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 February 2022
941. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the licensing targets for private felling licences for 2022 are sufficient to mobilise the forecasted volume available in 2022 as indicated in a forecast by an organisation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7606/22]
View answerThe Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine publishes extensive information on forestry licence and other forestry-related statistics on its website, including the weekly Forestry Dashboard. In the last five years, over 14,000 tree felling licences have issued.
The Department commenced compiling its own timber volume data for issued tree felling licences in 2020, when the 1,700 felling licences issued covered a volume of just over five million cubic metres. In 2021, 2,877 tree felling licences were issued for approx. 8.5 million cubic metres. This exceeds the projections in the COFORD All Ireland Roundwood Production Forecast.
The Forestry Licensing Plan for 2022 envisages that a 35% increase in private tree felling licences issued. Based on the volume represented by the licences issued in 2021, it is expected that the volume licensed in 2022 will exceed the projections of the COFORD All Ireland Roundwood Production Forecast.
I understand the sawmills had a good year in 2021. Coillte had their contract event on 17th November, with sawmills receiving 50% of their supply of Coillte generated logs for 2022. In addition to this, sawmills are taking in a steady supply of logs from private felling sites. Critically, the volume of felling licences issued has stabilised the market in this regard.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) compiles data on actual volumes of timber harvested. An average of 3.85 million cubic metres of timber was harvested in 2017 to 2020. Figures for 2021 are not yet available.
