Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 April 2022
1930. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the projected output of forestry licences for 2022 matches the recommendations by working group one of project woodland which were issued to the project board; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21045/22]
View answerThe clearing of the backlog of licences is a priority for myself and Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector. Increased resources have been invested in dealing with files on hand and, under Project Woodland, a dedicated group, Working Group 1, is tasked with looking at the backlog.
Working Group 1 has, based on the Climate Action Plan & the timber harvest forecasts from the Coford Roundwood Production Forecast 2016-2035 recommended that some 2,681 new licences for afforestation and forest roads should issue in 2022. In relation to felling 4,329 licences were recommended.
During 2021, the Department issued 4,050 forestry licences, which is an increase of 56% on the number issued in 2020, and met our revised target of 4,000 licences. It is our intention to build on this momentum in 2022.
The Forestry Licensing Plan was published in January 2022 and it sets out a range of forestry priorities for 2022.
The main priorities are:
- A target of 5,250 new licences to issue, which is a year-on-year increase of 30%.
- 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 approvals from several schemes including Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) (Ash Dieback), the Reconstitution of Woodland Scheme (Frost) and the Native Woodland Scheme.
- As can be seen in the table below, as of 1st April 2022 the projected target of year to date licences to be issued was 1,313 and the output of licences was 1,310.
As can be seen in the table below, as of 15th April 2022 the projected target of year to date licences to be issued was 1,515 and the output of licences was 1,480.
|
Scheme |
Output YTD Licences |
Target YTD Licences |
|
Felling (Private) |
419 |
525 |
|
Felling (Coillte) |
654 |
450 |
|
Afforestation |
178 |
300 |
|
Roads |
229 |
240 |
|
Total (licences) |
1,480 |
1,515 |
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. My Department will continue to issue progress updates weekly through our forestry dashboard available here gov.ie - Forest Statistics and Mapping (www.gov.ie).
