Written Answers Nos. 360-362
360. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number and area of private sector tree felling licences lodged with his Department that are not yet approved, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16013/23]
View answerThe Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine continues to issue and accept felling licence applications and has to date this year issued 725 felling licences. Furthermore last year we issued record levels of felling licences at 3,293 for 9.6 million cubic metres of wood or 46,027 Hectares. These licences have up to 10 year timelines and are being used by forest owners providing work for forestry contractors and supplying sawmills.
As of 27th March 2023, there are 1,291 private sector felling licence applications. totalling an area of 18,539 hectares, which are not as yet approved. They are at various stages of completion within the Assessment process; some where my Department is awaiting further information from the applicant, others where the application is undergoing one of the public consultation stages and finally those being considered by for approval.
|
Year |
Number |
Hectares |
|
2018 |
7 |
130 |
|
2019 |
53 |
788 |
|
2020 |
70 |
952 |
|
2021 |
267 |
4,601 |
|
2022 |
693 |
10,217 |
|
2023 |
201 |
1,851 |
|
Total |
1,291 |
18,539 |
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine continues to issue and accept felling licence applications and has to date this year issued 725 felling licences. Furthermore last year we issued record levels of felling licences at 3,293 for 9.6 million cubic metres of wood. These licences have up to 10 year timelines and are being used by forest owners providing work for forestry contractors and supplying sawmills.
361. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide details of the availability of private sector and Coillte logs for the processing sector in Ireland for 2023 and 2024; if he will outline the percentages of the total for each, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16014/23]
View answerThe COFORD Council who provide advice to my Department prepare periodically a range of indicative roundwood forecasts for forests in Ireland. The most recent forecast was published in 2021 and provides indicative figures for the period 2021 to 2040. This forecast is available to download from the COFORD website at the address www.COFORD.ie.
The COFORD forecast 2021-2040, table 5 provides the following figures for the potential supply of roundwood for a range of diameters from seven centimeters to over 20 centimeters for the private and Coillte estate. The larger diameters are generally more suitable for logs. Based on the table below the percentage of the private sector total supply from 7 cm to over 20 cm is approximately 46% for 2023 and 2024.
Table 5: Annual forecast of Net Realisable Volume ( 000 m3 overbark)
|
Year |
Private Sector(000m3) |
Coillte(000m3) |
||||||
|
Tip – 7 cm |
7-13 cm |
14-19 cm |
20 cm + |
Tip- 7 cm |
7-13 cm |
14-19 cm |
20 cm + |
|
|
2023 |
89 |
420 |
915 |
1,050 |
145 |
538 |
924 |
1,294 |
|
2024 |
82 |
387 |
895 |
1,125 |
145 |
538 |
924 |
1,294 |
It must be noted that the information presented in the forecast is indicative and does not in any way guarantee that this volume will be harvested in any particular year. The forecast is based on a number of assumptions and the actual volume harvested will depend on a wide range of factors. For example in some cases owners may decide not to harvest due to market conditions.
362. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will upgrade the systems in the forest service of his Department to enable the accurate aggregated calculation of licensed volume available per year as per the detail submitted on each TFL application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16015/23]
View answerEach private forestry felling licence application is recorded on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's Forestry application portal and is also available to view on the Forestry Licence Viewer since 2021.
The information recorded includes the proposed area and species type. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine publishes a weekly dashboard, available on the Department's website here: www.gov.ie/en/publication/859b1-2023-forestry-weekly-dashboard/ which shows the area licenced that week, and, the estimated area felled, in terms of hectares and volume m3, for each month.
Statistics on forestry generally are available on the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine’s website here: www.gov.ie/en/collection/15b56-forest-statistics-and-mapping/#annual-forest-sector-statistics This includes the Forest Statistics Annual Report 2022, Forestry Division’s Monthly reports, and weekly dashboards. Finally, updates on the Forestry Licencing Plan 2022 can be found on the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine’s website here: www.gov.ie/en/publication/21b71-forestry-licence-plan-2022/
