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

I can only reassure the Deputy. The weekly figures on how many forestry licences are being issued, the areas involved, the road lengths in question and so forth can be accessed through our Department's website. There has been a significant turnaround in the two and a half years since this Government took office. The House will be aware that we ground to a halt because of European court judgments against Ireland. We were not doing what we should have been doing, resulting in our Department having to transform how it issued licences. We have done that well and we have made year-on-year improvements since then. With a new forestry programme in place from next year, a new forest strategy and more money than ever to incentivise and support farmers in planting trees, we are going to see a step change in the number of trees planted and farmer engagement with forestry.

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