I propose to take Questions Nos. 1138 and 1139 together.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine issued 4,050 forestry licences last year, which was an increase of 56% on the number issued in 2020 albeit this was a challenging year for the sector. Along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, it is our ambition this year to increase the number of licences issued to 5,250.
We currently have 648 afforestation licences, 2,098 felling licences and 402 roads licences, awaiting approval, a total of 3,148. Since 1st January, this figure has reduced from 4,803 and from 6,100 in August 2021, therefore the accumulation of licences is being cleared. Of those on hand, those classified as being in the backlog are 530 afforestation, 1,800 felling and 243 roads.
Up to 30th June, we have issued 2,449 licences, which I acknowledge is below the projected average of 2,635. It is, however, inevitable, in the context of the annual target figures, there will be fluctuations in licence output and across categories from week to week. I remain confident that by year end we will achieve our projected targets. In June, we achieved our overall target for the month.
As regards RUS while we committed in our Licensing Plan to increasing output this year, the Plan does not include an annual target as many RUS applications are screened in for Appropriate Assessment and are referred to ecology. Of these, any that propose replacing the ash crop with conifer species currently require planning permission.
We have had successful engagement with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in relation to this requirement for planning permission. From those discussions we expect that legislation to remove the requirement for planning permission in all cases under 10 hectares will be introduced after the Summer recess.
Output Year To Date is on RUS is 81 and we have 488 RUS applications on hand. The following link shows the output vs target in each of the licensing categories.
Output vs Target In the interest of full transparency, details of all licences issued by category are available on the weekly dashboard. This is published on the Departmental website and is made available to all interested parties as well as being submitted to the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine each week.
