I propose to take Questions Nos. 665 to 669, inclusive, together.
The Deputy refers to Parliamentary Question number 941 of 19 October, 2021, in which I gave a breakdown of the 420 tree felling licence applications, that were referred to Ecology, where further information by way of a harvest plan or amended harvest plan was required from the applicant. This followed a large triage exercise undertaken by my Department of licences on hand for processing.
This exercise has allowed us to significantly increase our output of forestry licences with over 790 private sector felling licences issued since 1 June. However, approximately half of the requests for further information remain unanswered and cannot be processed until they are submitted. Follow- up reminders for these cases, 234 in total, issued in the week ending 5th November, 2021.
Specific information on the number of Further Information Requests issued by licence type and scheme by week since 2019 is not readily available.
This more recent exercise was for a specific cohort of files, rather than at individual file level, which is why we have immediate statistics to hand. We will examine the other request to establish if such statistics can be compiled.