Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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3410. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the output to date in 2021 of afforestation, roads and felling licences; the way this compares with the licensing output for the same dates in each of the years 2016 to 2020; the percentage increase or decrease in output compared to those dates in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40458/21]

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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3411. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of felling, afforestation and roads licences yet to be approved by county and nationally in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40459/21]

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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3414. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total forestry licensing output to date; the output required in the remaining months of 2021 if his Department is to reach its stated aim of issuing 4,500 forestry licences in 2021 for each month in 2021, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40462/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 3410, 3411 and 3414 together.

Resolving the delays in issuing forestry licences is one of my top priorities as Minister. Along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett who has responsibility for the sector, we have devoted considerable efforts towards resolving it. The reasons for the current backlog are well known. The Department was obliged to make significant changes to the forestry licensing system due to European Court of Justice and Irish law rulings relating to the protection of European sites. This led directly to most forestry projects being screened in for Appropriate Assessment.

This has been very challenging to implement and resulted in a requirement for much greater ecological input into licensing and to a delay in issuing licences, while new procedures were introduced and additional IT, ecology and inspectorate resources were put in place. Significant resources and investment have been devoted to implementing these new procedures and Minister of State Hackett has introduced a framework under Project Woodland towards resolving the entire licensing issue.

Improvements have been made to the system for the preparation of Appropriate Assessment Screening Determinations, Appropriate Assessment Reports and Appropriate Assessment Determinations. Currently, these operate for felling licence applications, and our ecologists are working mostly on these felling applications, but similar process improvements will be applied to assist with forest road works and afforestation licence applications. This was notified to Registered Foresters in Circular 8 of 2021.

June was the highest month for the issuing of private felling licences in over five years and included 226 private felling licences or an average rate of over 50 private felling licences a week. In total, the Department was issuing an average of 95 licences over the last seven weeks which was a 50% increase on previous weeks this year.

This rate of licence decisions will not be possible in July and early August because of the introduction of a mandatory consultation period of 30 days for cases that are undergoing Appropriate Assessment, but output will increase again from mid-August. Continued high output will also depend on receiving good quality harvest plans from applicants and their agents and good quality Natura Impact Statements (NIS), where sought.

Initiatives under Project Woodland will bring further improvements in licensing efficiency and output. The Project Board overseeing the project had issued its first interim report this week outlining some next steps in respect of recommendations received. A business system analyst is conducting a review of the licensing process. Furthermore, a regulatory review of the licensing system will be carried out by an independent expert.

The Department has now issued 1,900 forestry licences this year (to 23rd July), which is 25% up on the same time last year. I expect that the latter months of the year will see the target 4,500 licences achieved. We are making progress and I am hopeful that further gains in efficiency will be possible due to these proposals.

The attached spreadsheet shows the number of licences issued by type from 2016 to 2020 and to 23rd July 2021, for afforestation, forest road works and tree felling licences. It also shows the total for each licence type for the first half (January to June) in each year 2016 to 2021 and a percentage comparison of the number of licences issued, for each licence type in each year, against 2021.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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3412. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the impact of the introduction of SI No. 293 on forestry licensing output; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40460/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department has made a change to the way in which forestry projects that require Appropriate Assessments under the Habitats Directive are assessed. This change, which was recently implemented, is necessary to give full effect to legislative changes made by the European Union (Birds and Natural Habitats) (Amendment) Regulations, 2021, (S.I. No. 293 of 2021) recently introduced by the Department of Housing and Planning. In response to the instrument, my Department has initiated a revised public consultation to ensure that there is full public participation in decision-making around projects that may have affect European sites.

In addition to the initial public consultation process opened when the forestry licence application is first advertised, a second 30-day consultation period will commence after receipt of a Natura Impact Statement (NIS) or after an Appropriate Assessment Report (AAR) is produced by my Department. If a NIS is submitted with the initial application only one public consultation period is required.

This new requirement has had an initial impact on our ability to issue forestry licence decisions on files subject to Appropriate Assessment as these had to be advertised for the requisite period. This is reflected in the number of licences issued since the introduction of the SI. Output will begin to increase again in mid-August.

There are approx. 1,700 private forestry licence applications awaiting assessment by an Ecologist, that will require Appropriate Assessment and therefore will be opened for this second public consultation phase. Of the Coillte applications received earlier this year, approx. 1,600 are still awaiting decision and a significant number of this will also require ecological assessment.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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3413. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the next steps his Department is taking with respect of the regulatory review of the forestry licensing system in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40461/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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When Minister of State, Senator Pippa Hackett who has overall responsibility for the sector, and I launched Project Woodland in February of this year, I had two objectives. One to address and review the forestry licensing system and the second was to agree a shared national view to long-term approach to forestry and woodland creation in Ireland.

The review of the licensing process is a top priority and the regulatory review is of key importance. This is a high-level review of the regulatory and planning process for forestry licensing in Ireland. My Department is in the process of securing the services of an independent person or persons with appropriate legal and environmental expertise to carry it out. A tender process on this has commenced.

The review will include an examination of experiences in other Member States in licensing forestry activities and how they comply with EU legislation and from this, what lessons we can bring to our licensing systems. Given the importance of this analysis, we will have to accord enough time for this review to be comprehensive in nature.

Complementary to this review is the end-to-end process review of forestry licensing procedures and the IT system which is being conducted by an independent business analyst. There is a plan in place to finalise this work by September, at which stage it will then be examined by Working Group 4 and recommendations will be brought to the Project Board for consideration.

These two comprehensive reviews of the end-to-end licensing process and the regulatory framework will, I believe, lead to lasting improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of the system and will help us better meet the needs of landowners, forest owners, timber producers and all involved in forestry in Ireland.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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3415. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to the concerns of the forestry industry in relation to the European Commission Forestry Strategy and the failure to take into account the views of the European forestry sector during the formulation of the strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40463/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The European Commission published the new European Forest Strategy on 16th July 2021. The strategy was prepared as part of the European Green Deal as well as building on the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030. The strategy covers the entire forest cycle as well as promoting the many services forests provides.

An EU wide public consultation on the strategy took place prior to its publication. This consultation happened in two phases. The first phase ‘the roadmap consultation’ lasted from 30 October 2020 until 4 December 2020. 308 replies were received to this stage of the process of which 8% came from company / business organisations. The next phase was an open public consultation that was conducted between 25 January 2021 and 19 April 2021. This consultation took the form of a survey published on the European Commission website published in all official European Union languages. In total 19,117 replies were received to the survey, 91% of which came from individual EU citizens, with 81 of these replies coming from Irish based respondents.

My Department is aware of the concerns expressed by Forest Industries Ireland (FII) in their formal written response to the EU Forest Strategy. This process is only beginning though at both EU and national level and it is important that all stakeholders continue to engage and engage early in order to help shape the process.

The new EU Forest Strategy will also feed into how we shape the new Irish Forestry Strategy currently being developed by Project Woodland. The Irish strategy will recognise the multi-functionality of forests as yielding social, economic and environmental benefits guided by an overarching commitment to Sustainable Forest Management. From engaging with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, our Forest Strategy will be subject to full public and stakeholder consultation which is planned to commence this year and it is my hope that all stakeholders will participate in that consultation along with other stakeholders and the wider public to develop an ambitious new national Forest strategy for Ireland.