Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 266: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the issues affecting the forestry sector, specifically inconsistent implementation of the Planning and Development Act regarding road access to forests, which is preventing the thinning and felling of forests; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10181/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Section 4(1) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 sets out development which is exempted from the requirement to obtain planning permission, including "development consisting of the thinning, felling and replanting of trees, forests and woodlands, the construction, maintenance and improvement of non-public roads serving forests and woodlands and works ancillary to that development, not including the replacement of broadleaf high forest by conifer species".

Article 9 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 provides that development consisting of the formation, laying out or material widening of a means of access to a public road the surfaced carriageway of which exceeds 4 metres in width is not exempted development. However, this did not qualify the exemption in the Act referred to above, which provided a complete exemption for private forest roads including the making of an access onto a public road.

As this resulted in a position where no consent was required to join forest roads to a public road, section 5 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010 amends section 4 of the Principal Act to provide that the exemption for forest roads does not extend to the provision of access to a public road. Section 5 of the 2010 Planning Act will be commenced as soon as possible.