Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of forestry. The Government is committed to the last Government's plan to increase dramatically the amount of forestry in our country. This will be beneficial for both climate action and rural and regional development. I have taken note of the Deputy's suggestions and I will let the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, know about them. I am sure she will respond to the Deputy directly.

As we all know, there is a backlog of forest licence applications awaiting assessment. This arose following a surge in appeals connected to Article 6(3) of the habitats directive of 1992. This led to the establishment of the Natura 2000 network of designated sites. Article 6(3) requires that where a plan or project is likely to have a significant effect on a Natura site, whether individually or in combination with other plans or projects, it must undergo an appropriate assessment. As a result of these appeals and the subsequent application of the Natura report, a complex restructuring of the appropriate assessment procedure has been introduced by the Department. These procedures are now in place and a project plan is being established to deal with the backlog.

Resources to service this new approach have been, and are being, put in place. New forestry inspectors and additional administration staff have been assigned to licensing. More forestry inspectors will be recruited this year. Two new ecologists have joined the Department's ecology team and four more are to be appointed shortly. The Department has also engaged external ecological experience to help with the backlog of files and four local ecologists have been contracted to provide extra support. A further ecology contract, with five new ecologists, has also been signed. Additional administration staff have been assigned to the appeals office to assist with the increased workload of the appeals committee. Three planning officers have been contracted to work with the forestry appeals committee and a specialist mapping expert has been assigned to forestry issues.

The introduction of this new process has led to delays in issuing licences and has had a major impact on the sector, which we acknowledge. Notwithstanding the delays in the latter months of 2019, it is important to put on the record of the House that 2019 was, in fact, a record year for the issue of felling licences. Some 4,100 felling licences were issued in 2019, which was a 16% increase on the previous year. This year, 783 licences have issued. With regard to licences processed for afforestation, 276 licences have been issued for more than 2,000 ha and 184 road works licences for 65.2 km of forest roads were issued up to 19 June of this year. Furthermore, from January 2018 to the end of May 2020, 3,650 ha of fully licensed afforestation was not progressed to planting stage.

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