Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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357. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if there is an immediate need to increase the afforestation grant in line with his recent increase in the TAMS grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61019/21]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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361. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will detail the real inflation adjusted increase or decrease in the afforestation grant for all GPC categories in each year since 2000 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61031/21]

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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362. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on whether there is an immediate need to increase the second instalment grant on areas already afforested due to real increases in costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61096/21]

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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363. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on whether there is an immediate need to increase grant support across all support schemes for forestry in line with real increases in costs; his position on TAMS; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61097/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 357 and 361 to 363, inclusive, together.

The Forestry programme 2014-2020 was subjected to a midterm review in 2018 which assessed the rates of grants and premiums for all forestry schemes. As a result of this review a number of changes were made to grants and premiums which reflected increased costs in some areas and the level of scheme uptake. Afforestation grants and premiums were increased as a result of this review. Some of these changes included a 7% increase in grant rates for broadleaves and some conifer grant categories, a 5% increase in all broadleaves and some conifer premium categories and increased funding for forest roads.

In addition, my Department intends to proceed to pay for an ecology report submitted with an afforestation application when paying for the establishment of the plantation. This is to support the applicant in the preparation of habitat maps or similar documents when an application is submitted on their behalf. An environmental planning grant was recommended in the O’Hara Report. This is currently being implemented.

The Department is currently developing a new Forest Strategy which will underpin a new Forestry Programme for the period 2023 - 2027. During the consultation process on the new programme all matters in relation to forestry including the payments of grants and premiums and the rates to obtain, will be open to the views of stakeholders and these will be considered.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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358. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of a felling licence for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61022/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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An application for a tree felling licence cannot be found for the details supplied. Contact was made with the Deputy's office to see if further details, including a TFL reference number, could be supplied in order to identify this applications but no reply received to date.

If such details are supplied we will provide a complete response directly to the Deputy.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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359. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department approved the environmental grant as recommended by working group 4 of Project Woodland, before returning €7 million of capital spending from the forestry budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61027/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As part of Project Woodland, Working Group 4 (WG4) were tasked with considering an environmental planning grant. This is to support the applicant in the preparation of habitat maps or similar documents when an application is submitted on their behalf.

An environmental planning grant was recommended in the MacKinnon Report.

My Department has responded to this by proposing to introduce a new environmental grant intended to cover some or all of the cost of an ecology report submitted with an afforestation application. This will be paid when we are paying for the establishment of the plantation i.e. at Form 2 stage.

This has the advantage of being efficient to implement for forestry companies, applicants and my Department. My Department requires a number to weeks to implement the necessary changes to the claim/payments system, following a decision to proceed, so that payments can commence early next year.

Working Group 4 have also asked for other options to be considered and we are reviewing these requests and will respond directly to WG4 in due course.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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360. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the transparent procedures required by his Department to increase the appropriate assessment screening distance from 3km to 15km; the person or persons authorised to introduce this change; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61028/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Habitats Directive and the transposing legislation SI 477 of 2011 require, inter alia, that an appropriate assessment is undertaken where screening identifies a likelihood of the project having a significant effect on a European site(s). This is true regardless of the separation distance between the project and the European site(s).

A likely zone of impact is used to identify those European Sites to be specifically addressed during screening. In decision making, regarding the likelihood of a project having a significant effect on a European Site(s), all European Sites within a certain radius (or ‘likely zone of impact’) should be considered at screening stage, in addition to hydrologically connected European Sites.

For example, in relation to a Special Protection Area, it is important to consider whether the project area lies within the foraging distance of bird species for which that SPA was designated, and many of these foraging distances exceed 3km.

There were a number of factors which prompted the Department to make the change in mid-2019. Appropriate assessment screening decisions would be vulnerable to challenge if my Department continued to consider at screening stage only those European Sites within 3km.

Practice in other land use sectors where appropriate assessment screening is required is also to provide for a 15km likely zone of impact.

Furthermore, results on individual cases heard by the FAC also indicated that the 3km radius was not appropriate. Every application for a forestry licence is assessed on a case-by-case basis, but also in combination with other plans and projects in the area.

The regulatory review currently under way as part of Project Woodland is considering the specific question of the 15km radius and this independent review will report in February 2022.