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

Tackling the backlog in forestry licences remains a key priority for me and the Department.

I am pleased to report that significant progress has been made in the past year, particularly on felling and roads. However, afforestation is a crucial part of this and we are actively addressing it all the time. Regarding the prioritisation of afforestation licences in recent times, in the month of November, 50 afforestation licences were issued and the total to date for the year stands at 476. We have dedicated more ecologists to deliver afforestation licences. Investment in resources and continued improvements have had a positive impact with a significant increase in licensing output across the board. This has brought our total licensing output this year to 3,718 and my officials tell me that we will meet our target of 4,000 licences by the year end, which will be a 60% increase on last year. Our road licensing output for this year will be double the target set for us in the climate action plan. The volume of timber licensed will be approximately 8 million cu. m this year. This is 60% higher than last year and the highest volume ever licensed in a single year.

There are many issues in the system that still have to be fixed. We are working on that and the establishment of Project Woodland has that as one of its chief aims, as well as looking at the future model for forestry and a fit-for-purpose, multifunctional strategy for forestry for the future.

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