Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. It is good to be here this morning. I am joined by Mr. Barry Delany, director of forestry, and Mr. Kevin Collins from the environment section.

I thank the Chair and the committee for the invitation to address them today. I acknowledge the committee's continuing interest in forestry. I certainly welcome the opportunity to update members on progress in implementing the Department's forestry licensing plan for 2022. I also want to use the opportunity to raise other related issues that I believe are of interest to the committee.

Before we discuss licensing, I want to touch briefly on the implementation of the Mackinnon report. I know this is something close to the hearts of many committee members. Project Woodland was set up to implement the Mackinnon report. Through the good work of the working groups, most of the issues identified by Mackinnon are being addressed and are at different stages of implementation. Some of the recommendations have been implemented. I will refer to this work later in my statement.

On the question of licensing, I am pleased to report real and substantial progress in improving the Department's output. The request by the committee and Chair during previous engagements was that the Department should aim to issue approximately 100 new licences every week. I am delighted to report that this is being achieved. In total, we issued more than 4,000 licences last year, which was a 56% increase on 2020. This included 2,877 felling licences, with a volume of nearly 8.5 million m3. This is the highest volume issued in a single year. Last year was also a much improved year for forest road licences, with 264 kilometres of roads approved in 2021. These increasing trends are welcome. However, I am aware of the need to continue at pace this year, and in particular, to increase further the number of afforestation licences issued. At the beginning of this year, we published the forestry licensing plan for 2022. This contains a target of 5,250 new licences to issue in 2022, which is a year-on-year increase of 30%. We are delivering on this. As of last Friday, we had issued 1,426 licences so far this year, which is marginally ahead of our target of 1,414.

Our plan is to achieve a 100% increase in output for planting licences in 2022. With this in mind, the Department recently recruited a number of external ecologists who will, for the present, focus exclusively on afforestation. Once these ecologists are trained and bedded in, I am confident that the output of afforestation licences will increase significantly to meet the annual target set out in the licensing plan. With regard to felling, we have reassigned some staff to focus on private felling licence files. This change and the recruitment of ecologists focusing solely on afforestation are intended to ensure that we meet our annual targets for both categories. We will keep the deployment of resources under review, as we have for the past two years, and as the year progresses we will make further changes that may be necessary to ensure that we can respond in an agile way to any issue that arises.

I am aware there has been a focus in some public commentary on the number of licences issued in individual weeks. While this is understandable in all of the circumstances, my focus is on meeting the annual licensing targets. It is inevitable, given the nature of the licensing process and the specificities of each application, that there will be some variability in numbers from week to week. We are certainly working on having more consistency in the pace at which licences are issued, and to a large extent we have achieved this. We are also making significant progress on addressing the backlog in licences. So far this year, we have issued 1,426 licences and received 563 new applications. We are processing licences at approximately three times the rate we receive new applications.

All of this means that there are 3,860 licences in total on hand with the Department, a significant reduction from this time last year, when the figure was around 6,500. This is evidence that the improvements in our systems and the additional resources that have been put in place are having a positive impact and will bring us to the stage where licences are issued in a timely fashion. The Department, members of the Project Woodland working groups and the project board continue to work towards this goal, building steadily on the gains already achieved. I acknowledge the commitment of all involved in the process. At this point, my Department is on course to have no outstanding felling licences predating 2021 by end of the second quarter of this year. To achieve our aim to increase licensing this year we will also need the help of the sector. I understand the Department has more than 700 further information requests still outstanding for afforestation, roads and felling. I encourage applicants to respond as quickly as they can to these information requests.

The committee has taken a keen interest in the ash dieback reconstitution and underplanting scheme. We have 593 applications on hand for a total of 2,402 ha. A total of 189 approvals have issued for the scheme for a total of 620 ha. However, the Planning and Development Act and associated regulations provide that the replacement of broadleaf high forest with conifer species, which is screened in for appropriate assessment, requires planning permission from the relevant local authority in addition to the requirement for a felling licence. The Department is engaged in discussions with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on this issue. I am advised that there may be a route to amending the legislation to allow replacement of broadleaf with conifers for sites under 10 ha without the requirement for planning. We will update the committee on this matter in due course.

I am also very pleased that with the passage through the Oireachtas last month of the Animal Health and Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021, the Forestry Act 2014 has been amended to facilitate the planting of native trees in areas up to 1 ha in size without the requirement for a licence. This will be part of a scheme established for this purpose. The scheme will also facilitate tree planting along watercourses. The terms and conditions of the scheme will ensure that all planting will be in accordance with all environmental requirements. We are developing the scheme and will engage with relevant stakeholders. This will complement existing efforts to increase afforestation and will encourage the establishment of small areas of native trees that are important for biodiversity, landscape and water quality.

I said at the beginning of my statement that I would refer to some of the outputs under Project Woodland. The end-to-end review of the licensing process has been completed and recommendations arising from that review have moved to the implementation phase. The draft external regulatory review is being examined by the working groups and the project board. The picture it paints is one of a complex web of EU regulation and case law. Unfortunately, there are no silver bullets. There may, however, be some solutions that can help to improve processes and make them more efficient but none are simple. The Project Woodland project board has asked the working groups and the Department for their views on the draft report and will work with both to develop an action plan.

Work is continuing on the development of a new shared vision and strategy for trees and forests in Ireland. Through the Project Woodland process we are engaging with the public, local communities and stakeholders in a variety of ways. We recently launched a public consultation survey on the future of forests in Ireland. It is open to all and can be accessed on the Department's website until 27 April.

We have already received more than 1,000 responses. I encourage members of the committee to share the details of the consultation with their constituents who may wish to make submissions. This is a critical time for forestry, and I look forward to seeing the results of this consultation. Irish Rural Link has also undertaken some consultation on our behalf and has submitted a draft of its Assessment of Attitudes by Communities and Interested Parties on Forestry and Woodlands, which is currently being considered by the members of the forestry policy group.

In addition, quotes are currently being sought for a training needs analysis specifically to address the needs of the licensing process, while a tendering process will commence shortly to engage an external consultant to carry out an external organisational review of the Department's forestry division.

Furthermore, a communications strategy is being developed and is due to be finalised shortly. I have also signed off on an additional payment to contribute to the cost of environmental reports required to accompany licence applications. This is currently awaiting sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

We are also exploring the option for developing better communications between the Department's foresters and applicants, by implementing a pilot for pre-application discussions. Ultimately, this is designed to improve the quality of applications and smooth the passage of applications through the system once submitted.

We have made significant progress through the increased resources and efficiencies that have been introduced in our forestry division, and I am confident that we will reach the targets set for licensing this year. I know how important it is to the whole sector that we maintain momentum and continue to build on the progress made to date. I am confident that while we still have much do, we are taking the steps necessary to address the delays in licensing and to eliminate the backlogs.

It is also clear that, for a variety of reasons, we need to encourage farmers and landowners to plant more trees. Forestry has a critical role to play in contributing positively to climate change mitigation, and to the improvement of biodiversity and water quality. It also has a central role to play in improving farm incomes as part of the agricultural enterprise, and in the development of the rural economy and job creation. The work currently under way to develop a new forestry strategy will be vital to our success in increasing afforestation. We understand how important it is to ensure that our licensing system is fit for purpose but if we are serious about forestry, we have a collective responsibility to ensure that we get better at communicating its many benefits not only to farmers but to citizens and to industry. With this in mind, we will be working with stakeholders, through Project Woodland, on the development of a communications strategy to help build a culture of forestry among farmers and landowners. Consistent negative messaging around forestry, while perhaps understandable at times in the past, is undermining a sector that has so much to offer rural Ireland. We need to work together to change this narrative if we are to be successful in creating a strong culture of forestry in Ireland. I am particularly interested in hearing the views of the committee on the issue. I thank members for their attention, and I am happy to take questions.