Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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859. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of afforestation licences issued by his Department in 2021 that exceeded the agreed timeframes set out in the Farmers' Charter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15926/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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In 2021 my Department issued 502 afforestation licences for 4,245 hectares. 18% of these were issued within the Farmers Charter timelines of 18 weeks from date advertised.

As the Deputy will be aware we have faced delays in the licensing system because of court judgements that led to a more onerous Appropriate Assessment procedure and the need for ecological input on most licences.

These delays are being dealt with under Project Woodland and our investment in resources and in more streamlined procedures has resulted in an increase in the overall number of licences issued in 2021. We will build on this momentum in 2022 and as outlined in our Licensing Plan will issue 30% more licences overall at 5,250. We will give a higher priority to afforestation licences with a more than doubling of output at 1,040 licences.

It is our aim to reduce the turnaround time for licences from their current levels, and in this respect we will be looking to foresters to submit quality afforestation applications to facilitate more efficient processing. In this regard we have a pilot Pre-Application Discussion scheme available in three districts in order to assist foresters who have questions on the application process, with plans to expand nation-wide.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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860. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the average number of recon and underplanting scheme approvals and decisions that the Forestry Service must issue each week from now until the end of the year 2022 to ensure that all of the applications currently on hand in his Department are dealt with by the end of 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15927/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Since the first finding of ash dieback disease in Ireland, my Department has provided support totalling over €7 million to owners of ash plantations impacted by ash dieback disease through the ash dieback reconstitution scheme (introduced in 2013) and more recently the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS – Ash dieback) introduced in July 2020.

Applications for that RUS are received regularly, and decisions are issued as the assessment of the applications are complete. To date, the Department has received 608 applications covering 2,459ha and has issued 186 decisions for 600ha.

The Forestry Licensing Plan 2022 was published earlier this year and deals with projected licensing output and approvals for support schemes and may be found here gov.ie - Forestry Licensing Plan 2022 (www.gov.ie). A key target of the plan is to refocus on the delivery on approvals from the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) (Ash Dieback). Many RUS applications are screened in for Appropriate Assessment and are referred to ecology. Of these, any that propose replacing the ash crop with conifer species currently require planning permission. My Department continues to engage with the Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH), with the objective of removing the planning permission requirement for these files.