Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are dealing with it. Although it has not been dealt with or completed yet, we are making progress on it every month. Members know, as I do, that this time last year there was a real crisis in the sector. Sawmills that would normally have sourced their logs from Irish forest were not able to get those logs and sawmills that did not want to import logs were importing. Thankfully, we are no longer in that situation and we now have wood flowing freely through the system. In any given year, imports of logs are always dwarfed by exports because the vast majority of the timber we produce in Ireland is exported, although we import timber for some purposes. We are back at that equilibrium that we have been at in terms of supply, in particular the supply to the sawmills.

Prices have gone up in line with international prices and it is not a supply issue at Irish level because we have more than enough supply in the system. The challenge is obviously around licensing in terms of getting through the licence applications that are there. Real progress has been made and, over the course of this year, significant further progress will eat into that backlog. Thankfully, we have moved gradually over the course of the last year to a situation where we are issuing more licences in a week than the number of applications received. We have tipped that balance and, over the course of this year, we will be issuing significantly more licences than applications received and eating into that backlog. Through the regulatory review that is ongoing, we are looking to see where and how we could possibly make the system leaner to give even greater capacity to issue more licences. We are going in the right direction and we will continue to make progress month by month over the next year.

As Deputy Fitzmaurice pointed out, afforestation will be a significant priority this year for the Department and we seek to double the level of afforestation licences issued. Over last year, we made massive progress in dealing with the appeals backlog, for example. All of the committee members co-operated in December 2020 in facilitating a change to legislation to streamline the appeals system. At that stage, we had 1,000 applications backlogged in appeals, as well as the challenge in regard to straightforward licensing. That is now down to ten or 20 files in the appeals system compared with 1,000 some 13 or 14 months ago. Again, that has been a significant help and has provided certainty around the pipeline so the appeals did not become a blockage as well. That is a reflection of the progress that has been made.

When we come from such a challenging position as we were in this time last year, we do not flick a switch and get to where we want to be overnight. Thankfully, I can report that we are making progress week by week and month by month. We are on the right pathway and it is one that will deliver more and more progress and gradually clear that backlog. The backlog of applications has reduced by approximately 1,300 over the course of the last year. We want to get to a stage where we have the normal equilibrium of files in the system, potentially around 2,000 files at any one time going through the various stages of the process.

I acknowledge the tremendous work that the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, has done in leading out and turning the corner. It was a challenge she faced when she was appointed. The crisis was coming to its most acute point, and a lot of work had to be done to move it forward. It was also very challenging for the team of officials in the Department, as well as for everyone working in the industry, to gradually work our way out of it.

We are on that pathway now. We have to start changing the narrative because we are at the stage where we are able to process and issue significantly more than we are receiving, which is driving down the backlog. We now want to get the message out to people that we want more licence applications and we want people to look at forestry in a positive way. While we have further road to go in dealing with the challenge, we are on that road and that should bring confidence back to the system and enable us to change the narrative. It is still challenging but we are on the pathway.