Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 June 2022
316. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the efforts that are being made to streamline forestry regulations in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35050/22]
View answerProject Woodland was established by Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, over a year ago to improve the forestry licensing system and deal with the backlog, and to drive forward the planting of trees under a shared vision for forestry in Ireland.
As part of the work undertaken, a legal and regulatory review of forestry licensing has been carried out by Philip Lee Consultants and, following extensive stakeholder engagement, their Report was published on 29th June, 2022.
In accordance with the Terms of Reference, they have reviewed and critically analysed the existing EU and domestic legal framework for the licensing of forestry activities, including relevant case law. In addition, the Report focuses on practical and implementable options for streamlining processes and procedures, having regard to arrangements in other European countries, and the constraints imposed under EU law as interpreted by the Courts.
The Department has been tasked by the Project Board of Project Woodland to develop and submit an action plan for the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Report and this work is already underway.
In the meantime, I have substantially increased the resources available to processes forestry licences, and processes are being streamlined. This has resulted in an increase of 56% in the number of licences issued in 2021 compared to the previous year, albeit 2020 was a challenging year for licences.
