Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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355. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of further information requests issued in relation to forestry licence applications in each of the years 2015 to 2020 and to date in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56819/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department does not routinely keep records of the number of further information requests that issue on forestry licence applications.

Statistics are available for a specific triage exercise recently carried out on a cohort of tree felling licence applications awaiting assessment by an ecologist. This resulted in a batch of further information requests issuing at the end of June, on 420 applications. As approximately half of these requests remained unanswered, 234 (of the initial 420) were issued with reminders week ending 5^thNovember.

This work has resulted in over 800 private tree felling licences issuing since the beginning of June.