Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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235. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of forest road grant applications have been received to date since the introduction of the forest road single consent system on 7 February 2020; the number of same that are single consent applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32163/21]

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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236. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the average time from receipt of an application to the issuing of an approved forest road grant licence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32164/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 235 and 236 together.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine receives applications for forestry licences and issues decisions on a daily basis.

On 7^thFebruary 2020, the Department became the sole consenting authority for forest road works licences, where a forest road entrance opens onto a public road (excluding National roads) or there is material widening of an existing entrance. Since that date, 946 forest road licence applications have been received, of which 308 are under single consent.

To date this year, the Department has issued 319 forest road licences for 134km of roads. This is 107% of the annual target of 125km of forest roads to be licensed in 2021. Forest roads are intrinsic to the haulage of timber and ensures the flow of felled timber to the sawmills. Since the beginning of the year, the average time to issue a forest road licence from date advertised is nine months.