Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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292. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding timelines for the processing of forestry thinning applications; the status of an application by a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33627/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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A tree felling licence application was submitted for the person named in April 2020.  This is a large, complex site, which is near overwintering grounds for Hen Harrier. The site is over peat of varying depths, near to Lough Derg and there are restrictions on proposed operations, outside the bird nesting season, which brings a risk to water quality.

The Department’s Ecology Unit is currently examining this application and expect that a decision will issue within two to three months.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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293. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 529 of 25 May 2021, if both of the two senior forestry inspectors share the same roles and responsibilities; if not, the way in which these roles and responsibilities are split; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33673/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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There are two forestry Senior Inspectors. Both are permanent staff members.  They do not share the same role. 

One is the Head of the Forestry Inspectorate Division whose main responsibilities are to manage Forestry Inspectors, Ecologists and Archaeologists within this Division in the implementation of licence and scheme delivery, enforcement and monitoring.  In addition, this Senior Inspector is also responsible for Forest Health, which amongst other things is related to import controls at some of the Irish ports, export certification, regulatory aspects of Wood Packaging and regulatory aspects of Forest Reproductive material.

The other Senior Inspector is responsible for the Forest Sector Development Division which looks after forest and climate policy, implementation of the European Timber Regulation and collecting data and publishing Irelands National Forest Inventory. This Division is also responsible for Ireland's international forest reporting requirements on greenhouse gas inventories and representation at EU forums on forest policy. He is also responsible for the coordination and facilitation of the COFORD Council and its associated working groups.

Both Senior Inspectors report directly to the Assistant Secretary with responsibilities for forestry.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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294. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 530 of 25 May 2021, if he is now stating that he is not going to adhere to the charter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33674/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The question of customer communication is being dealt with under Working Group 3 of Project Woodland. 

I wish to reiterate our commitment to the improvement of customer relations and to better meeting customer expectations. I, along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett who has responsibility for forestry, will be examining in detail the recommendations when they come from the Working Group with a view to their early implementation.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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295. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 531 of 25 May 2021, if it can be shown or proven that a district inspector has not adhered to these circulars, the sanctions that can be implemented; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33675/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department issues forestry related circulars to the forestry sector on a regular basis. These circulars are issued to the trade and clarify or amend Department policy. Such policy clarification or change would then fall to be implemented by Department staff as per the contents of the circular.

Where anyone has information that a District Inspector is not following proper procedure, this information should be forwarded to the Department. 

This issue would then be addressed, in the first instance, with the District Inspector by their line manager with a view to ensuring that the staff member is fully aware, trained and follows all relevant procedures that are laid down.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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296. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 533 of 25 May 2021, if a site was planted in 2019, but the grant was not paid out until 2020, if that area is included in the 2019 or 2020 programme; if the area was not and never has been included in both years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33676/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Newly established afforestation is only counted in statistics for the year in which it was paid as it is, at that stage, that there is confirmation that the afforestation has been completed.  As regards a site planted in 2019 and paid for in 2020, the area planted would be included in 2020 statistics.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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297. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 536 of 25 May 2021, if his prediction for a higher output for May has materialised; if so, the reason the recent forestry dashboard has shown a week-on-week decline on the output of licences being issued; if he will intervene with the Assistant Secretary to make sure at least 100 licences are issued as declared by the Assistant Secretary with his statement to the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33677/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As predicted, there has been an increase in licence output from mid-May which has continued each week since. The Department has issued an average of 90-100 licences for the last five weeks and we expect this week to be similar.  This resulted in May being the second highest month in terms of licences issued this year and we expect June to be the highest month of the year so far. The vast majority of licences issued in recent weeks have been to private landowners and farmers.

We remain committed to issuing 4,500 forestry licences this year, which is an increase of 75% on 2020.  To 18 June, 1,594 licences have issued, with 99 licences issued last week.  As outlined previously, there will be weekly fluctuations within individual months.  However we believe that the second half of the year will be higher than the first half for licences issued and that the 4,500 target will be met by year-end.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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298. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 537 of 25 May 2021, if he will make available or publish the advice received for the significant changes to its appropriate assessment procedure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33678/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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There were many discussions with environmental consultants, amongst others, at the time with clear advice around the Department moving to the implementation of the wider zone of influence. As previously outlined, the decision to move to the 15km was based on a number of factors including the advice from environmental consultants, NPWS, feedback from the FAC and industry standards in other sectors.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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299. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 538 of 25 May 2021, if the new project manager for Project Woodland (details supplied) has to answer to the Assistant Secretary; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33679/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Project Manager is part of the forestry team based in the Department and was specifically recruited to oversee the implementation of Project Woodland. This project is one part of the Department's overall work on forestry which is overseen by the Assistant Secretary with responsibility for the area.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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300. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 539 of 25 May 2021, the number of licences withdrawn to date in 2021 by Coillte; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33680/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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There were three licence applications withdrawn by Coillte to date in 2021.  It is the decision of the applicant to withdraw an application which may be made for various reasons.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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301. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 540 of 25 May 2021, the number of licence applications that have been made to the Forest Service by Coillte and or Bord na Móna for the new industrial cutaway woodland; the number that have been approved to date by the Forestry Service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33681/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department has not yet accepted any application for native woodland creation on former industrial cutaway peatlands and no licence has been approved to date under this Pilot Scheme.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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302. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 541 of 25 May 2021, if he will refer the forestry service to the Committee of Public Accounts to examine if the taxpayer is getting value for money; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33682/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As previously outlined, as Divisions within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, both the Forestry Division and Forestry Division Inspectorate are amenable to the Public Accounts Committee.

The Irish forestry sector is a significant employer in rural Ireland of almost 12,000 jobs. Improving the licensing situation is a key priority for me, Minister of State Pippa Hackett who has responsibility for forestry and the Department and no effort is being spared to achieve this. We need to maintain an intense focus on achieving this.  Some early progress is being made with licences up 23% year-on-year and I fully expect this figure to increase as the year goes on, accepting that last year was especially low in terms of output.

Delays in forestry licensing arose because of a very significant change in procedures in relation to Appropriate Assessment as a result of European Court of Justice judgements and subsequent interpretation by the Irish courts and the Forestry Appeals Committee.  Every effort has been made to address this situation with additional inspectorate, ecology and administrative resources recruited, along with training and guidance for both Departmental staff and registered foresters. 

The complexity of introducing a completely new assessment procedure inevitably took time to take effect and this has affected output. Having said that, there have been recent gains in productivity, with the 1,594 licences issued to date this year representing a 23% increase on the same period last year.  As regards felling, a volume of just over 3.1 million cubic metres has issued so far this year, which is a 58% increase on the same period last year and represents 76% of the COFORD Roundwood Forecast which predicts a potential harvest of 4.1 million cubic metres in 2021. 

While we moving in the right direction, we are more than aware of the impact of the backlog on the sector and, in order to improve the functioning and delivery of the licensing process, Minister Hackett, launched Project Woodland in February. This puts in place a framework consisting of a Project Board and four Working Groups, chaired by independent chairs and with outside stakeholders as members, which aims at resolving the backlog and introducing more efficient and effective processes. The process improvement exercise will examine, among other things, whether resources may be deployed more effectively and an organisational review of  forestry teams within the Department will consider  the structure, roles and responsibilities of these teams relative to outputs sought.

Along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, I remain hopeful that the framework now in place under Project Woodland will address our current difficulties and will result in a licensing system which meets the needs of forest owners and new applicants and the forestry sector as a whole.