Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 23 March 2022
220. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of felling licences his Department must issue to the private sector each week from 1 March 2022 to 31 December 2022 in order to achieve his targets as set out in the recent licensing plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15197/22]
View answerThe Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine published the Forestry Licensing Plan 2022, recently, which may be found here gov.ie - Forestry Licensing Plan 2022 (www.gov.ie). The targets for each of the licence types are included in the plan and there being 52 weeks in the year, the annual target in each case is divided by 52, to indicate the average weekly outputs. These, of course, are averages across the year and will fluctuate at times. The total target private felling licences for 2022 is 1,830 as indicated in the table below.
|
Targets |
Total |
Average Weekly |
|
Felling (Private) |
1,830 |
35 |
|
Felling (Coillte) |
1,530 |
30 |
|
Afforestation |
1,040 |
20 |
|
Roads |
850 |
16 |
|
Total |
5,250 |
101 |
As the table below shows for week ending 11th March 2022, the total number of private felling licences to be issued year to date was 350 (based on the average weekly profile) while the number issued was 314.
|
Scheme |
Output Licences Week ending 11.03.2022 |
Target Licences Week ending 11.03.2022 |
|
Felling (Private) |
314 |
350 |
|
Felling (Coillte) |
431 |
300 |
|
Afforestation |
132 |
200 |
|
Roads |
140 |
160 |
|
Total (licences) |
1,017 |
1,010 |
Along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, my priority is to deliver our 2022 licensing plan this year, which includes meeting our overall target of 1,830 private felling licences for the entire year.
