Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Mythen. First, it was not the system that was at fault. The challenges that came about with the licensing came about because of EU challenges on how we were issuing licences. We had to completely and fundamentally change how we evaluated licences, hence the backlog came. The system at the time maybe did not deliver but we had to change that, and that was a massive challenge for us. This is going back three or more years. In that time, we did invest heavily in personnel, like ecologists. We went from one ecologist to 30 in a period of time. We invested in engineers and forestry inspectors, and we looked at the processes by which we issued licences. We refined that and made it more efficient and effective, and it is. I would like to call it a well-oiled machine at the moment, and it turns around licences in the manner in which they need to be turned around. At the end of the day, they have to be issued under strict environmental criteria, and the criteria are strict. While that is certainly a challenge for the Department, it is also a challenge for farmers who are maybe waiting a bit longer than they may have wanted for their licence. We have made commitments under the farmer's charter. If licences are screened in for appropriate assessment, it might take up to nine months to get the licence, and if they are screened out it might take six months. It could take a shorter time for some of them, and I hope not much longer for others. We are making efforts in regard to them, and those are significantly improved turnaround over previous years, so that is to be welcomed.

I assure the Deputy that we have all of our key personnel on top of all of this, and we have been actively engaging with foresters and our own inspectors on this new programme, making sure that we engage with the forest owners of the future. It is important they get to engage early on in the process and the pre-application discussions, so they are fully aware of what needs to be done. There is a lot there, and that is also to be welcomed.

We have looked at Ms Jo O'Hara's report, and in fact, it has informed a lot of what we now do. I do not think there is a necessity for an implementation as such. The best way to look at it is that most of the recommendations that were in Ms O'Hara's report have now been rolled into the new programme. I will establish a new forestry strategy implementation group, although we have not named it yet, and it will implement the new forestry programme which is what we have been working towards over the last number of years. We have a new programme, we will establish a group to implement it, and I look forward to seeing it being successful.