Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I responded to the Chairman and Deputy Carthy on the forestry issue. There is no doubt that the licensing backlog and licensing challenges have contributed to the reduction in the forestry area planted. If a licensing system is not operating smoothly and has delays, it acts as a discouragement to applicants. It does not make it attractive. We have a great deal of work to do and we are working hard on addressing the backlog. I outlined some of the measures. The Deputy is aware of the Bill which the parties co-operated on a number of weeks ago. We have significantly increased the number of ecologists in the Department from two whole-time equivalents this time last year to 16 now. We are hiring more as well.

We are currently recruiting an additional 13 forestry inspectors, ten of whom will work on licensing files. That work is ongoing. People have also moved in to assist forestry inspectors with licensing. We are starting to see an increase in licensing and an increase in volume in the past two or three months-----