Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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211. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason for the continued clear-felling and replanting of 90% to 95% sitka spruce on sensitive and vulnerable upland bog sites in contradiction with current science (details supplied); and his views on same. [3726/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Forestry in Ireland operates within a legal and regulatory framework. This is necessary in order

to protect forests and to ensure that forestry operations are undertaken sustainably.

When a forest owner seeks to clearfell an area, they must submit a felling licence application detailing the proposed activities, which are considered by my Department. Environmental legislation has led to strengthened controls on forestry operations, to ensure that important environmental considerations are fully considered during the assessment of felling licence applications. This has included a greater focus on consultation with relevant bodies, the application of various procedures and the requirement for applicants on occasion to provide further information.

Felling licence applications detail the owner’s intention for their forest following clearfell. The permanent removal of forests is permitted in certain circumstances where these forests may be incompatible with the conservation of protected habitats and species. However, in other circumstances, the conversion from conifer to a native woodland and open habitat may be more appropriate than forest removal for biodiversity or water protection. The Felling and Reforestation Policy document provides further information on the range of options available to felling licence applicants.

As deforestation is not listed as an ‘exempted development’ in the Planning & Development Acts or Regulations and as there is a mandatory threshold set out in Schedule 5, Part 2, Paragraph 1(d)(iii) of the Regulations, which requires deforestation for the purpose of conversion to another type of land use, where the area to be deforested would be greater than 10 hectares of natural woodlands or 70 hectares of conifer forest to be subject to an EIA (and developments by implication below those thresholds screened for EIA), it is my Department’s understanding that projects involving deforestation (in addition to a felling licence) are subject to a planning permission requirement.

Proponents of a project involving deforestation which believe it might be otherwise exempt of this requirement are entitled to seek a Declaration under section 5 of the Planning & Development Act as to whether the relevant planning authority considers the proposed project does require planning permission or not.

The Department will continue to assess all felling licence applications and the proposals therein on the future management of their forests to ensure that licences issued are in keeping with the principles of sustainable forest management and the protection of the environment.