Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Department has delivered considerable reductions in the backlog of all forestry licences, as well as reductions in the time taken to process newer files, and, last year, we had another significant year-on-year increase in the number of licences issued. The backlog of licences on hand more than four months reduced from 6,000 applications in August 2021 to 3,700 at the start of 2022 and 1,840 to 14 April this year. The progress in continuing to reduce the backlog is expected to continue through 2023.

My Department continues to issue and accept felling licence applications and, to date, has issued 909 felling licences. In 2022, 817 more felling licences were issued than felling applications received. Furthermore, last year we issued record levels of felling licences, at 3,293 for 9.6 million cu. m of wood, or more than 46,000 hectares. These licences have up to ten-year timelines and are being used by forest owners, providing work for forestry contractors and supplying sawmills.

As of 14 April 2023, there were a total of 2,238 felling licence applications on hand, with 1,199 of these on hand more than 120 days, which is how we used to define a backlog. Average turnaround times are falling overall and this is most evident in files received post 2021. My Department is actively working with applicants to finalise any outstanding information required to allow decisions to be made on their applications. For those applications where other issues arise, my Department has a programme in place to contact applicants to allow decisions to be made on whether to continue to process the applications or close them out.

We remain fully committed to delivering a licensing system that will meet the needs of the sector and society and recent licensing trends for felling applications demonstrate the progress made towards achieving this. To continue to ensure transparency in forestry licensing operations, I intend to publish a new forestry licensing plan once the new forestry programme has been approved.

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