Mr. Colm Hayes:

We thank the committee for inviting us here today and welcome the opportunity to update it on developments since our previous appearance on 29 January. The Chairman has asked me to specifically focus on licensing, which I will do because we have submitted a longer and more detailed statement that will go on the record, and will be available for everyone to read.

I acknowledge the work of the committee in producing its report on the issues that impact the sector in Ireland, which of course we have carefully studied. The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Hackett, has responded to the committee thanking it for its detailed and careful consideration of these issues. She has responded to the observations and recommendations to outline where they are being incorporated into Project Woodland.

The Chairman has asked me to address the licensing issues but I want to update the committee briefly on some important developments that have taken place since my previous appearance. First, the Minister launched Project Woodland on 25 February. It is a major project that aims to resolve the issues facing the sector and is also looking at the wider strategic outlook for forestry in Ireland. The setting up of a high-level project board to oversee Project Woodland is now in place. The board is chaired by Mr. Brendan Gleeson, the Secretary General of the Department. It has three independent members who bring extensive experience and knowledge of project implementation and governance. Below that, there are four working groups seeking to deliver the identified tasks under Project Woodland. Each working group has an independent external chair and its membership comprises stakeholders from the forestry policy group and a departmental representative. The statement goes into more detail on those individual aspects.

There has also been the appointment of an external project manager, Mr. Eamon O’Doherty, as per the recommendations of the Jo O'Hara report. Mr. O'Doherty attends this meeting today as part of the Department's delegation. He is available to speak and answer questions.

The final piece is the commission of a study to be conducted by Irish Rural Link that will engage with communities to determine attitudes towards forestry in Ireland. The recommendations from the study will feed into the work of Project Woodland on forestry strategy.

In terms of licensing, we fully acknowledge the difficulties that delays have caused for applicants. It has been a difficult time for applicants who have had to wait longer than they should have to receive their licences.

We are sparing absolutely no effort to resolve this.

We are not yet where we want to be on licensing but we are seeing some improvements in output, with 1,236 licences issued to date this year. This is a 15% increase on the same period last year and although I know significant further gains are needed, we are moving in the right direction. Of course, licence output is only one measure of performance and the more realistic metric is the volume of material licensed as this is what matters to the sector. In this regard I can indicate that as of last Friday, felling licence volumes are 32% higher than the same period last year and the area licensed for afforestation is 26% higher. Road lengths licensed are 117% higher. Of course, this is not to say licensing issues are resolved - they are not. I am not claiming that to be the case. We are, however, making progress with substantially more work yet to do, and I fully expect this progress to improve further as the year progresses.

As many of the questions raised by the Chairman pertain directly to licensing, I will now address it in more detail. As members know, we have set ourselves an ambitious target of 4,500 licences this year, as outlined in January, which is a major ambition amounting to a 75% increase on the same period last year. By the end of this week, I expect we will have reached just under 30% of this target. We are absolutely committed to achieving this target and I remain confident that we will deliver the number of licences promised. It is a huge task to do this but we are ambitious both for our output and the Irish forestry sector.

As has been stated, to achieve this goal we will likely have to issue over 100 licences per week for the rest of the year. Last week we issued 101 new licences, along with a number of remitted licences, or appeal decisions back from the forestry appeals committee. I expect this week's number to be high and well above the weekly average so far this year. This improvement is largely thanks to some process changes we are making internally, as well as an increase in resources. The number for April was lower than expected but in May we expect to have recovered some significant ground and June will achieve the highest numbers so far this year.

The number of licences now on hand is 6,119. This figure is inflated by the submission by Coillte in March of 1,842 new felling licences to cover production for the next two years. It is important to understand that particular nuance. As we all know, a significant factor in the licensing backlog has been the need for more stringent appropriate assessment procedures, and particularly the number of licences requiring ecology input. As noted, we have invested heavily in ecology resources, training and, more recently, a streamlining of procedures in order to address the backlog. There are currently 1,860 private applications on the ecologist work list for afforestation, road and felling files. On average, the weekly output for licences with ecology input since June 2020 is 38 licences. Over 1,050 files have come off the private ecology work list, of which 900 have already issued as licences. When combined with the ecologists working on Coillte files, this means 1,745 licences with ecology input have issued.

We continue to focus all efforts on improving the licensing position. The difficulties created for those involved in the sector are clearly understood by us and our foremost objective is to resolve this matter. As already mentioned, two working groups of Project Woodland are fully engaged with the backlog and improving the process.

The question has been raised as to how many licences the Department must issue annually in order to satisfy the needs of the private forestry sector and specifically the quantities to keep the mills running. The targets for output are determined not by the number of licences but by metrics relating to targets set for afforestation and forest roads and, in the case of felling, the forecasted harvest. It is worth looking at our progress to date measured against these three specific targets. The Department has issued 116 km of forest road licences this year, or 92% of the annual target of 125 km set out in the climate action plan. I expect, therefore, that road licences issued this year will well exceed this target. Based on targets, we expect to issue new licences for over 5,000 ha of afforestation this year, with licences for 2,236 ha issued to date. Additionally, 4,300 ha has already been licensed and is shovel-ready or available for use carried into this year. It is, of course, up to landowners to decide whether to plant once they have received approval to do so. It is a matter for all stakeholders to utilise the licences available and I encourage them to do so. Of course, improved turnaround times for licences will play a significant role in this - we acknowledge that - and converting what is licensed into planted area must be everybody's priority. We remain concerned by the continued low conversion rate from approval to planting and I have written to sectoral representatives in the past week to invite them to discuss this in more detail and see how we can be of more assistance.

With felling, we have issued licenses for just over 2.2 million cu. m for the year to date, which is 54% of the COFORD Roundwood forecast. The breakdown so far this year is that Coillte has received 58% of the licensed volume and the private sector has received 42%. We are very confident that last year's output of 5 million cu. m will be exceeded.

I will also update the committee on the question of appeals for forestry licences because it is relevant to output. The position with appeals is progressing extremely well, with only 48 cases remaining to be scheduled. In total, the forestry appeals committee has 130 cases on hand from approximately 1,100 received overall. We are advised that come September the turnaround time for new appeal cases will be in the region of two months. This is a very welcome development and testament to the hard work of the forestry appeals committee, the new committees and departmental staff.

Looking to the future, I will briefly outline our priorities for the rest of 2021 on forestry so they can be well understood by all. In summary, these include the issuing of 4,500 new licences for afforestation, roads and felling; the implementation of Project Woodland and all of its many recommendations; the significant advancement of a new long-term forestry strategy for Ireland; and the development of a strong Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, strategic plan and an ambitious successor to the forestry programme, both of which will deliver for farmers, rural communities and society as a whole. The focus absolutely must be on better integration between both of these policies, as set out in the programme for Government. These are enormous challenges that will require intense focus if they are to be achieved. It will require the co-operation of all stakeholders and we are committed to working together with them in the achievement of these targets.

I thank the committee for its attention and we are very happy to answer any questions.