Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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694. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of forestry licences his Department projects it will issue in 2022; the number that are projected to be new licences for afforestation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3240/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department issued 4,050 forestry licences last year, which is an increase of 56% on the number issued in 2020 albeit 2020 was a low output year.

These approvals included 2,877 felling licences. Critically, the availability of this volume of timber, at nearly 8.5 million cubic metres, stabilised supply to the processing sector in 2021. This is the highest volume ever issued in a single year.

In addition, 264 kilometres of forest roads were licensed, more than double the target in the Climate Action Plan 2021. The number afforestation licences remained static, with 502 afforestation licences issued, which represents 4,245ha of forestry.

As regards targets for 2022, which are currently being finalised, this year we will build on the momentum achieved in 2021 and will focus on increasing the number of afforestation licences issued. We will continue to keep resources under review and will implement all practical process improvements which result from the review and analysis in train under Project Woodland.

Along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, I remain fully committed to delivering a licensing system which will meets the needs of the sector and of society and recent licensing trends demonstrate that we making progress towards achieving this.