Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 31 March 2022
173. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of forest road approvals his Department must approve from now until the end of 2022 to ensure that all of the applications currently on hand in his Department are dealt with by 31 December 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16997/22]
View answerIn 2021, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine issued 671 forest road works licences for 264km which is the highest ever volume of forest roads licensed in a single year. I believe that the volume of timber felled in 2021, based on the available forest road network and new forest road licences issued, was sufficient to stabilise the supply of timber to saw mills.
The Forestry Licensing plan for 2022 provides for the licensing of 5,250 applications for felling, forest roads and afforestation, an increase of 30% on 2021. Within that, the target for forest road licences is 850, an increase of 27% on 2021. This will be more than sufficient to deal any backlog and enable the haulage of timber from the forest estate when added to the existing roads already approved or installed in Irish forests.
I am committed to meeting the needs of the forest sector so that we have a thriving and sustainable industry and we will play our part by providing sufficient road and felling licences to service the industry this year.
