Mr. Colm Hayes:

When we publish licences three times a week on the Department's website, we make very clear what type of licence is involved. It is specified whether it is a thinning licence, a clear-fell licence or a combined thinning and clear-fell licence. That goes right down to townland level. We have a new portal via which any member of the public can view an individual licence and see whether it was for thinning, clear-fell or a combination of the two. The lack of information that is there at the moment, as Deputy Fitzmaurice sees it, has not been an issue in the past because there has been a steady supply of licences and timber. That steady supply was clearly interrupted last year because of a failure to issue as many licences as we would have liked. Ultimately, by getting the system back on track and continuing with felling in the past four months and in January and continuing that through 2021, we will get the steady supply back again. I do not envisage this being a continuous issue. All we can report on in terms of a headline figure for the dashboard is the volume that we have licensed. Each individual licence, which can provide more detail, is available from the Department.