Mr. Colm Hayes:

I would be happy to look at any individual file and see what happened. Deputy Ring may wish to send on the reference code. The Deputy has my details.

The answer to the overall question is more or less the same as before. There is no question but that 2020 was a very bad year for licensing. We did 2,400 licences, which is 80% below what it should be relative to previous years. The target now has to be to ensure that 2020 becomes a stand-alone bad year and one not to be repeated. That is the position. In quarter 4 of 2020, we saw a significant improvement on the previous three quarters and that progress has continued into January. We now need it to continue into February and March.

We do not want to see logs being imported. There is plenty of timber in the country to be harvested. I appreciate that in giving our figure of 2.8 million cu. m of timber licensed from October to January, there is a timeline between licensing and when that timber arrives at the sawmill door. However, all we can do is license it and get the licences out there. The dashboard shows that there has been a noticeable pick-up since October. We need to drive that on. There is no question about that. We were in a particular bind in 2020 and we were hit hard with several court judgments that were hanging over us in 2019.

A large number of forestry appeals had to be serviced, which obviously meant that what was licensed could not make it to market. We have a much more efficient and functioning appeals system. We have cranked up the licensing system, but it still has some way to go. The message I would impart to the sector is to stick with us and to keep looking at the figures because they are improving. I would not like to see any farmer completely dissuaded from working in forestry because if one looks at the challenges facing farming, afforestation offers everything in terms of farm diversification and an alternative, steady income. That continues to be the case. We need to get farmers re-engaged. A fair bit has been done but there is a lot more to do. That is the strategy for 2021.