Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It has been ongoing for a number of years because of challenges at EU court level and changes in European decisions. That has forced our hand and required a different way of issuing licences. That has caused the backlog. What we were doing until a couple of years ago was wrong. It was challenged in court and found to be wrong. That has caused a knock-on effect on where we go now. We are still reeling from that judgment but we are making improvements. The situation is improving.

We invited Mr. Jim Mackinnon to Ireland and he completed his report in 2019. There was a general election after that, shortly followed by the onset of the pandemic. We implemented some of the recommendations in the report almost immediately after the establishment of this Government in 2020. Legislation was brought in to deal with the appeals, which was a significant recommendation in Mr. Mackinnon's report. Project Woodland has been set up to look at all the other recommendations and to try to roll them out in the best way. Project Woodland will decide if we are running with every single one of the recommendations or only some of them. There will be different views on what should be implemented and what should not. That process is ongoing and that is the purpose of Project Woodland. Mr. Collins may wish to say more.