Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Again, I understand the point the Deputy made. I believe it is already well provided for in the legislation. As we know, I spent much time at the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine earlier today. I have spent a lot of time talking about forestry in the agriculture committee previously, as indeed has the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, who has done Trojan work in bringing this Bill forward in terms of drafting this initiative.

With regard to confidence in the forestry sector and in the Department, we have had a very challenging couple of years but we have been working our way very deliberately and progressively out of that. As we know, a court decision on the challenges around licensing in 2019 radically changed the nature of how licenses will be processed, particularly the level of ecological assessment required of each application. As a result of that decision, it radically altered the way licenses would be considered within the Department and the processes required for that.

That then led to a backlog, which emerged from 2019 onwards. When this Government was formed, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and I were faced with a real crisis in the sector whereby there was a significant backlog. We had to recruit significant additional staff and alter processes. The backlog was not just in the primary and initial licensing, but also in appeals. There was a backlog of 1,000 cases in the appeal system. We introduced legislation to deal with that. As for that backlog of 1,000 in the appeals system that was present 14 months ago, there are now ten or 20 cases.

In relation to the backlog for licence applications, we have reduced that over the past year by about 1,400. Today, the figure is approximately 4,700. Previously, it was approximately 6,000. We are bringing it down every week and every month. We will bring it down even more over the course of this year. While it is a difficult situation, we are working our way out of it. Through initiatives such as the 1 ha proposal that we are bringing forward, as well as through the new forestry strategy, we will drive forward to improve afforestation over the next number of years. This will allow us to deliver on our climate targets. Importantly, it will allow this to be an important resource for the country, as well as an income stream for farmers.

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