Seanad debates

Tuesday, 17 December 2019

Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters

Forestry Sector

1:30 pm

Photo of Pat BreenPat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Mulherin for taking the question on behalf of Senator Paddy Burke, who is delayed. I can see it is an issue the Senator is very interested in as well. I thank her for raising it.

I apologise to the Senators for the absence of the Minister, Deputy Creed, and the Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, both of whom are in Brussels. As Senator Mulherin will be aware, the Minister is dealing with fisheries at an important meeting that is pertinent to her county. The Ministers are keenly aware of the current delays being incurred by applicants and have asked me to give some background to the issues to both Senators.

All forestry licences issued by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are subject to public notification and consultation and third party appeal. As the planning body for forestry applications, it has an obligation to ensure that all licences are issued in accordance with relevant environmental legislation. The relevant legislation is continuously subject to change as a result of case law interpretation and so the Department's procedures must change in tandem.

Furthermore, decisions are subject to appeal to the independent forestry appeals committee. Some of the submitted appeals have been won by appellants through challenging the Department's procedures. These cases have required the Department to change procedures involved in assessing forestry licence applications.The appeals are connected to the appropriate assessment, AA, procedure. Article 6.3 of the habitats directive requires that where a plan or project is likely to have a significant effect on a Natura site, either individually or in combination with other plans or projects, it must undergo an appropriate assessment of its implications for that Natura site. The forestry inspectorate has been implementing an AA procedure established in 2013. However, as the FAC has identified issues with the procedure, and as recent European case law is interpreted within Irish courts, changes to the procedure have been made. The Department has taken several steps to help deal with these changes including engaging the services of external environmental consultants to assist with the necessary revision of the AA and the delivery of training for forestry inspectors. It is also currently recruiting additional ecologists to join the forestry inspectorate.

A major triage operation is also ongoing to categorise the large number of files currently on hand for consideration by the in-house ecology team. The purpose of this process is to categorise files for further action and to advance each to AA determination stage using external ecological consultants. Forestry licences continue to be issued, albeit at a slower rate than would be expected. However, it has been a good year overall for felling licences and to the end of November the Department has issued just over 4,000 tree felling licences which is still higher than any previous year and is 10% higher than the total for all of last year.

Forest roads payments are up by 35% in 2019 with 87.4 km built to date as opposed to 64.6 km in the same period in 2018. The FAC is an independent body but I understand that it is now starting to hear appeals on cases on the Department's new procedures. Three additional administrative staff have been assigned to the agriculture appeals office to give extra secretarial and administrative support to the FAC. The Department will keep the resources of the FAC under review in the event that additional resources are needed.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, and the Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, are fully aware that this situation is causing difficulties, especially for landowners and forestry contractors. I wish to assure the House that departmental officials are actively working towards alleviating the current temporary disruption. I believe the robust and workable system now being put in place will result in an improved licensing system of benefit to all stakeholders.

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