Results 141-160 of 753 for speaker:Pippa Hackett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: I assure the Deputy there is no cover-up here. We have been transparent with the figures, with the output each week and with the reasons behind backlogs and the different backlogs that have existed. The Deputy will have seen from my opening statement I did not make any comparison to 2020. I appreciate where the Deputy is coming from. Many comparisons are made with 2020. I am only in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: I will pass to Ms Kelly to take that. I am trying to gauge here.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: I do not know. I will certainly check what the situation is with that. I do not have the information in front of me. I will follow up on that, if that is okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: The reason for this was the introduction of a statutory instrument from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which introduced a second 30-day public consultation period. It was not just for forestry applications but any planning application that requires an appropriate assessment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: That is the case. Approximately 80% of the forestry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: Yes. That is the case.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: That is still the intention. As the Deputy saw from the dashboard, in the first week of July, we ended up with 115 licences. The expected numbers were to be higher than that with the statutory instrument aside but we hope to get back up to speed from the middle August and the average would be much higher than that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: Coillte is the main supplier to the sawmills in Ireland-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: The sawmill owners need certainty.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: For 2021, yes. We are halfway through 2021. The Deputy may get the chance to visit a sawmill owner in receipt of wood through Coillte. Sawmills need that certainty for their markets for next year and the following year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: In June, we issued the highest number of private felling licences in the last five years, so that has not been the method to date. The Coillte licences are dealt with in a different way from private licences. Both approaches are equally robust but Coillte licences tend to come in a larger batch which facilitates the Department to look at collaboration between different licences in different...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: So far this year, we have issued 633 felling licences for private owners and 596 for Coillte. There have been more private licences than Coillte licences issued to date.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: I will pass that question to Mr. Collins.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: To which circular is the Deputy referring?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: We will not hit that target this year. That is clear. Last year, we did not reach it either. We have to start meeting it. The Deputy might have seen from my opening statement that we are looking at giving a boost to the native woodland creation scheme to encourage more farmers into it, particularly for riparian planting. Everything above 0.01 ha will account for afforestation. We will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: Project Woodland is a framework for developing the consensus we need. One of the work streams is entirely focused on the backlog. It is not just for something down the line.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: That has come from a recommendation from one of the work groups and we need to tease it out. We have not looked at that specifically.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: The regulatory-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: We are waiting for the regulatory and legal review, which has been tendered for. That is a substantial piece of work that was one of this committee's recommendations that we went with. The tender went out at the end of last week.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Aug 2021)

Pippa Hackett: That is a separate issue. I think the Deputy is referring to legal advice, which varies depending on who one speaks with. This is a far greater in-depth analysis to assess whether we are doing things correctly, overdoing things or underdoing things. It will be done independently. It is not just a planner. It will require planning-----