Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

The Deputy's first question was about the statutory instrument and the impact it had. It was never going to be the case that it would just delay things by 30 days. There was a significant process to engage in to put all those files up for consultation. Approximately 1,700 files were put up for consultation. People had to go through the vast majority of those manually and redact personal information to avoid breaching GDPR. That is one example of something that had to be done - 1,700 files had to be gone through manually. The reality is that we would prefer to have done that more quickly than we did, but that is what led to eight weeks of reduced output. That is built into our system now and we are back into a more efficient system.

The Deputy asked about the legal framework. We are stuck with the legal framework we have. The reality is that if someone with a high-cover deciduous plantation switches it to conifers, the local authorities treat that as a planning application. I can certainly talk to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage about that but I cannot guarantee that there will be any change in the regime. For the moment, that is the regime we are stuck with.

The Deputy asked about the target of 4,500 licences. I already mentioned that I do not think we will meet that. I think the figure will be in the region of 4,000 licences because we lost eight weeks of high output as a result of the statutory instrument.