Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 September 2022
585. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide a breakdown of the actual applications versus the phased projected monthly plan for licence and scheme applications in his Department’s plan for Coillte felling, private felling, roads, afforestation, and ash dieback RUS for the months of July and August 2022 and to date in 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45439/22]
View answerThere is an overall significant increase on all licensing categories year to date compared with last year. Up to 9th September, we have issued 3,355 licences, just behind the projected average of 3,636, In fact, in the last 12 months from Sept 2021 to the end of August, DAFM have delivered 5,100 licences
Afforestation figures are 64% of year to date target. However July and August have shown significant signs of improvement as a result of the new ecologists starting to issue licences. We are embarking on an intensive effort over the last few weeks and next few weeks to prioritise afforestation with an aim of clearing older files ahead of the new forestry programme.
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. There are 521 applications currently in the system, of which 257 are referred to Ecology. Any applications 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.
I attach a table outlining output vs target in each of the licensing categories.
Coillte Licence Applications Jan - Sept 2022
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.
