Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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797. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of forestry inspector grade 1 posts that were recruited into his Department in 2018, 2019 and to date in 2020, in tabular form. [39887/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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There are currently 147 staff working across my Department's three Forestry Divisions comprising a combination of forestry inspectors, ecologists, archaeologists and administrative staff.

We have invested heavily in resources to help speed up the processing of forestry licences There are 16 fulltime equivalent ecologists working on licensing files where previously this was one. My Department is also recruiting 13 Forestry Inspectors, which are in the process of joining the Department, most of which will be working on licensing files.

With regard specifically to Inspectors at Grade 1 level, it should be noted that recruitments are normally made at Forestry Inspector Grade 3 level so Grade 1 vacancies are not filled by external recruitment.

Grade 1 is a management grade and posts are filled by way of internal merit-based competition. The last such competition was 2019. In relation to posts since 2018 the following outlines the situation. The Forestry Appeals Committee is independent of the Department.