Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Senator Pippa Hackett):

I will. I am pleased to have this opportunity to present the Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2020 for the consideration of this House. All Stages were completed in the Seanad on Friday evening after a comprehensive seven-hour discussion, and I am sure we will have something similar in this House. I thank the Business Committee of the Dáil for agreeing to waive the requirement for pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the proposed Bill due to the urgency of the need to introduce this legislation. The Bill has been in circulation in draft form since the end of July. A month-long public consultation helped greatly to inform the draft put before the Seanad last week.

As all Deputies will be aware, the forestry sector is experiencing its fair share of challenges in recent times, not least the ongoing difficulties with issuing licences for afforestation, roads and felling. I am acutely aware of these issues, and my first and most pressing priority is to ensure we have an efficient and functioning licensing system. As the Minister of State with responsibility for land use, biodiversity and forestry, I am enormously keen to shape the future of Irish forestry to ensure delivery for the environmental, social and economic well-being of our country. The programme for Government is ambitious for forestry, with over 15 proactive, close-to-nature forestry commitments. I am determined to work with all stakeholders to achieve that ambition. My commitment, and that of the Government, to that ambition is unequivocal. However, first we must overcome the current difficulties and get the licensing system functioning for all. The reasons for the delays in issuing licences are well documented at this stage and have required the most fundamental changes to our licensing system in its history.

As I am sure Deputies will be aware, there is a crisis in the forestry sector. The licensing and appeals system has come under significant pressure in the last two years. Not only are there delays in issuing licences due to the licensing process itself, which my Department is addressing and to which I will speak later, but there are also long delays in determining appeals against licences issued. It is fair to say that the appeals system, and the forestry appeals committee, FAC, is currently overwhelmed. The delays being experienced are unfair to both applicants and appellants. A timely and efficient appeals process is needed, and that is why this Bill is being introduced. The Bill includes a suite of measures, which will deliver a much more efficient and effective process and will meet and balance the needs of all.

I will give Deputies some background information on the licensing system that is in place for afforestation, tree felling, forest roads and aerial fertilisation. My Department is the sole licensing authority for such licences and it determines all forestry licence applications at first instance. All licences must be issued in compliance with EU and national environmental legislation, including the 1992 EU habitats directive. An Taisce, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, and other bodies are statutory consultees on licence applications. The current licence procedures allow submissions by third parties at application stage and provide for appropriate consultations with any relevant consultation bodies. Applicants and third parties dissatisfied with a licence decision of the Minister may submit an appeal on that decision to the FAC within 28 days of the decision. There has been an upward trend in the numbers of licences being appealed, with 14 licences appealed in 2017, 105 in 2018, 235 in 2019 and 402 to date in 2020. While the FAC has increased the number of decisions issued year on year, with 31 in 2018, 55 in 2019 and 172 so far this year, it is simply not keeping pace with the appeals received. Approximately 490 cases are awaiting the decision of the FAC at present.

I have been engaging intensively with all relevant stakeholders on these issues. I have met with the environmental pillar, with Forest Industries Ireland and with other groups. I have had correspondence from many frustrated farmers who are confused about why they cannot get a licence to plant a native woodland or take out dead and dying trees from their forests. The delays in issuing licences have led to serious difficulties for people working in the forestry industry. If action is not taken quickly, we could face the prospect of sawmills running out of timber and of significant job losses. While delays in hearing appeals affect the quantity of timber being felled and transported to sawmills, they are also influencing planting rates. To date, my Department has supported the establishment of just 1,941 ha of new afforestation this year, which is down 35% on this time last year. This is well off any afforestation targets we have set, and it needs to be rectified.

Before I move on to the specific provisions of the Bill and the public consultation process undertaken, I want to say that the Bill is not being delivered in isolation. We are also addressing the other issues and delays with forestry licensing. It must be acknowledged that decisions on granting licences have been too slow, and we now have a significant backlog of applications. This arose in response to a substantial change in our appropriate assessment procedures, which deal with the impact of projects on sensitive European sites. We have completely overhauled our assessment process, which is now robust and responsive to the environment in which we operate. This has meant that the Department has had to revise procedures, increase resources, develop training and guidance, and strengthen its ecology team. While this has taken time, we now have a sustainable system and we are tackling the backlog through a dedicated project plan, which operates to key performance indicators. A project manager is in place and a project management board is overseeing and monitoring delivery weekly. This plan is already yielding progress, with the number of felling licences issued in August being the highest in the previous 13 months in both volume and area.

The action taken in improving the number of licences issued must be matched by a responsive appeals system or an even bigger bottleneck will develop at appeals stage. That is why this Bill is so important. In order to ensure full public participation with these proposals, the draft Bill was published and open to consultation for four weeks. I very much welcome the fact that almost 9,000 submissions were received by the closing date. This shows that this is an issue is of intense public interest. The vast majority of the submissions, approximately 81%, indicated support for the Bill. The submissions received have been examined and categorised in terms of who made the submission, that is, industry, private, public representatives or other, and whether the submission was in favour or opposed to the draft Bill. The submissions were also grouped and analysed based on the Bill head and section being addressed. A copy of a report summarising the main outcomes of the public consultation, which was made available last week, provides an overview of the submissions made. Careful consideration was given to the suggestions made, and as a result the draft Bill was updated to take account of the feedback received and presented to the Seanad last week. All submissions will be published in due course on my Department's website in a suitable format that meets GDPR requirements.

My Department is working hard to complete this as quickly as possible, hopefully very soon.

The main provisions set out in the Bill include increasing the capacity of the forestry appeals committee to determine appeals by enabling it to sit in divisions of itself; enabling the committee to determine appeals without an oral hearing where it is possible to properly dispose of an appeal in that manner; providing the Minister with the regulation making power to specify, among other things, the procedures to apply in relation to appeals and for related forestry appeals committee matters generally; and introducing reasonable fees for appeals.

Updates that have been made to the Bill to take into account suggestions made during the public consultation process are as follows. It makes no change to the right of applicants and all third parties to appeal directly to the forestry appeals committee. The removal of this "relevant person" provision will allow direct access to all. It sets the quorum requirement for the forestry appeals committee at two, to consist of a chairperson or deputy chairperson, or a deputy chairperson is designated, and at least one ordinary member in order to increase the efficiency of the committee. It provides that licensing decisions may be affirmed, varied, set aside and returned to the Department. This brings clarity to the role of the forestry appeals committee. It requires that all information and documentation must accompany an appeal in order to be valid. This is to ensure the efficient functioning of the committee. It provides clarity as to the circumstances in which the Minister might issue a general policy directive, that is, when prioritising certain classes of appeal having regard to the need to an ensure economically and environmentally yield of forest goods and service in the State.

These provisions were the subject of an informed and robust debate in the Seanad last week, where Senators put forward a large number of amendments to the Bill. These were organised into 14 groups, and I accepted two amendments in that House to which I would like to draw Members' attention. Text was added under section 2 at page 3, after line 26, which states that: "A copy of the report will at the same time be made available to the public on the Government of Ireland website and the Government publications office." I was more than happy to accept this change, which offers the widest possible visibility for the annual report of the chairperson of the forestry appeals committee. Under section 3 at page 8, the text at 14D (2) was replaced with: "When making a directive under this section, the Minister shall have regard to the need to support economically and environmentally sustainable forest goods and services in the State." This text better reflects what the Minister must have regard to when issuing a directive to the forestry appeals committee to prioritise certain classes of appeal.

I firmly believe that all these amendments are necessary to remove the current delays being experienced in the system and to reduce decision times in the forestry licensing system overall.

I will now go through the Bill in detail. Section 1 deals with definitions of the Forestry Act 2014 and the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001. Section 2 amends section 14 of the Act of 2001. It provides for the chairperson of the forestry appeals committee to make an annual report to the Minister of his or her activities and of the activities of the committee, and for copies of that report to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas, to be published on Gov.ieand be made available in the Government Publications Office.

Section 3 covers the amendment of section 14A of the Act of 2001. It provides for the appointment of deputy chairpersons to the forestry appeals committee and for the committee to sit in divisions of itself. It also provides for the committee to have a quorum of two, for a time limit of 28 days to lodge an appeal, and for the deletion of the provision that a decision of the forestry appeals committee may be appealed to the High Court on any question of law.

Section 4 deals with further amendments to the Act of 2001. It includes provisions for procedures and arrangements for the conduct of appeals, including oral hearings, and for the types of decisions the forestry appeals committee may make. It allows the Minister to issue general directives as to policy prioritising certain classes of appeal. It enables the Minister to make regulations having regard to the efficiency of the system of appeals, and the publication of documents relating to appeals on the forestry appeals committee website. It also gives the Minister the power to prescribe fees, by regulation.

Section 5 amends the Act of 2014 and allows for the publication of application documents on the Department's website. It also deletes certain sections of the Act, so that the making of regulations to prescribe fees follow the procedures outlined in the Act of 2001.

Section 6 outlines the transitional provisions for the coming into operation of the provisions of the Bill. In effect operational matters in relation to composition of the committee come into effect immediately on enactment of the Bill, as do directives from the Ministers. Fees may be imposed on licences made on or after the Bill comes into operation.

While we must recognise the current difficulties, we must also look towards the future of forestry, and how the planting of the right tree in the right place can best serve the environmental, social, and economic needs of our society. We have, however, a long way to go on delivering on these needs. Forestry has a vital role to play in climate action and in dealing with biodiversity decline. Getting this model right will be my primary focus. Any new national forestry programme must deliver on these objectives, and I am committed to the development of an ambitious new programme, one which unites communities, protects habitats, delivers a measurable response to climate change, while supporting important rural jobs, and a vibrant timber sector. This will not be an easy task, but I ask each and every Member to work with me on this.

I assure Deputies that this Bill will bring important efficiencies, proper procedures, and operational clarity to all stages of the forestry licence appeals process. It will provide for forestry licence appeals to be conducted in a fair, straightforward and timely fashion. While this Bill will not change the situation overnight, it will, along with our project plans for managing the licensing backlog, greatly improve the overall system, and will result in an increase in the number of licences available for planting and felling, and as a consequence will project jobs within the forestry sector. In that spirit, I look forward to our debate of its provisions, and the reforms which it can put in place, and I commend the Bill to the House.

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