Holly Cairns
Ceist:556. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps that he is taking to address the ongoing backlog of forestry licences. [31726/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 16 June 2022
Ceisteanna (556)
Freagraí scríofa
As the Deputy is aware, in the replies to Dáil question number 476 on the 03/02/2022 and also to Oral question number 120 on the 10/02/2022 the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued 4,050 forestry licences last year, which is an increase of 56% on the number issued in 2020. It is our intention to build on this momentum in 2022.
The Deputy may be aware of the main targets set out in The Forestry Licensing Plan published at the start of the year. The Plan sets out a range of forestry priorities set to run for the whole of 2022.
In order to achieve these targets, we have improved our systems, and given the number of files referred to ecology, we have recruited additional ecologists. There are 35 full-time equivalent ecologists working on forestry applications, with 21 dealing with afforestation. We expect the impact of this recent recruitment to become evident at the beginning of July.
As regards progression towards our overall target at the end of Quarter 1 2022, my Department had 3,862 licence applications on hand. Since 1 January, this figure has reduced from 4,803 and from 6,100 in August 2021. This is significant progress and indicates that output is exceeding output i.e. the number of licences issued in Q1 was 1,307 and the number of applications received was 621.
The number of applications with the Department over 120 days as of the weekending 10 June has further decreased to 2,500 applications. The Department has now brought in a policy on time-bound further information requests (FIRs). This will bring it in line with other planning authorities to ensure efficient use of resources. Files with outstanding FIRs over a set time will be removed from the licensing worklist. Reminders will always be sent to applicants to make them aware of the situation with their file.
Along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsbility for the sector, we expect the weekly output to increase once the full impact of all these measure including the new ecologists becomes evident and it remains my commitment to meet the targets set out in the Licencing Plan.
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 .