Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. It does take time but it then gathers pace as the years go on. That is why, in the climate action plan, we have looked, for example, at the balancing out of the sequestration potential between this decade and the next decade, so credit for plantations that happen this decade can be based on what it will average out at over the 2020s and 2030s. That is important because it further incentivises that drive to afforest from the point of view of delivering our targets.

The Deputy is right that, even this year, the afforestation is not replacing the felling, which is not a sustainable situation. The Deputy knows the backdrop in regard to the change. Licensing had been operating in a timely fashion and then, as a result of legal decisions and court decisions, that significantly and radically changed and led to the very significant backlog, and also the very significant increase in staffing and resources that we put in place to try to address that.

The time involved in any one application is a multiple of what it was previously, which has meant farmers have not been getting the service they deserve or should be getting in respect of licensing. We have tried hard to address this. It is now going in the right direction and improving. Progress is not as quick as we would have liked but we are getting there bit by bit and continuing to drive it. The Deputy is right that afforestation has lagged behind. We assigned ten ecologists to try to drive afforestation on. It is a weak spot that we want to see addressed.