Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1508. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of persons appointed to the forestry appeals commission or divisions thereof since 30 September 2020; the professional expertise of each; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32645/20]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1509. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of appeals heard by the forestry appeals commission or divisions thereof since 30 September 2020; the results of the hearings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32646/20]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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1514. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of forestry appeals committee divisions which have been established in order that multiple appeals can be heard simultaneously; when they will become operational; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32704/20]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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1519. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on matters raised in correspondence (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32782/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1508, 1509, 1514 and 1519 together.

The Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 was signed into law by the President on 2 October 2020 and the Act commenced on 6 October 2020 in full. The secondary legislation required to give effect to the Act was introduced on 7th October.

The new Act, amending the Agriculture Appeals Act was designed to align forestry licensing appeals process with best practice in other appeals processes. Among other things, it allows for the Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC) to determine appeals by enabling it to sit in divisions of itself.

I have moved quickly to resource the FAC to realise the provisions as set out in the Act and have appointed 3 Deputy Chairs along with 2 ordinary members. These individuals have been elected on the recommendation of the current Chair of the FAC and have been selected with regard to their particular expertise on issues such as environmental regulation, silvicultural issues and appeals processes. Agriculture Appeals officers will be deployed to sit on these committees also. Two additional persons with planning expertise have also been contracted to assist members of the FAC.

The FAC will therefore have 4 committees sitting in the month of November. The question of whether hearings are oral or non-oral is a matter for the Committee.

It is a matter for the FAC alone to determine the scheduling of appeal hearings as the Committee is operationally independent of my Department. The FAC has, I understand, scheduled 70 hearings for November. It will be a matter for the FAC to report on their own progress and they update their decisions weekly at:

I believe that the provisions in the Act will greatly improve the overall system with more timely decisions on licences under appeal being made by the FAC.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1510. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when the online forestry portal will be available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32647/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Forestry Licence Viewer (FLV) is being introduced to align the Department's forestry licensing system with other planning processes. Its purpose is to provide greater transparency and to enhance participation by the public in the decision-making process.

Officials in my Department have been developing the FLV for past few months and this work is nearing completion. The Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020, commenced on 6th October 2020 made provision for the publication, personal information in relation to forestry licence applications, including submissions received. This piece of legislation was crucial to the project.

It is the intention to launch the FLV in three phases.

Phase 1, will show site information for forestry licence applications received from 1st January, 2018 . We expect to launch this phase in mid-November, once system tests are completed.

Phase 2 will provide the user with access to application information and supporting documentation for the licence. This documentation will include applicant names and addresses, along with business names and contact information.

My Department takes very seriously its obligations regarding data protection and the GDPR regulation. Officials of my Department are liaising with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner on the FLV project. It is essential that applicants and others are made aware of and understand that their personal data will be visible the public, like local authority planning portals. Considering the importance of this element of this project, I cannot give a firm timeline on when Phase 2 will be launched. However, my ambition is to make it available by end November.

Further, documents will only be displayed for applications received from the launch of Phase 2. For applications already in the system, applicants and others would not have been made aware nor would they have consented to their information being published. The summary details of these projects will be viewable and interested parties may request the associated documents from the Department.

Phase 3 will enable the making of a submission on a forestry licence application, online, including facilitating payment of the submission fee. This phase will likely go live in early 2021.