Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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273. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the backlog in the issuing of felling licences will be addressed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23616/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The clearing of the backlog of licences is a priority for myself and Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector. Increased resources have been invested in dealing with files on hand and, under Project Woodland, a dedicated group, Working Group 1, is tasked with looking at the backlog.

Working Group 1 has, based on the Climate Action Plan & the timber harvest forecasts from the Coford Roundwood Production Forecast 2016-2035 recommended that in relation to felling 4,329 licences be issued.

My Department issued 4,050 forestry licences last year, which is an increase of 56% on the number issued in 2020, and met our revised target of 4,000 licences. It is our intention to build on this momentum in 2022.

The Forestry Licensing Plan was published and commenced in January 2022. The Plan sets out a range of forestry priorities set to run for the whole of 2022.

The main priorities are:

- A target of 5,250 new licences to issue, which is a year-on-year increase of 30%.

- A higher priority will be given to afforestation licences for 2022 with a 107% increase in output up to 1,040.

- There will be a year-on-year increase of 48% of private felling, roads and afforestation files. Coillte felling licences will maintain the levels they achieved in 2021.

As can be seen in the table below, as of 29th April 2022 the projected target of year to date licences to be issued was 1,717 and the output of licences was 1,655.

Additional resources have recently been reallocated from Coillte felling to the private felling license process. My Department will continue to issue progress updates weekly through our forestry dashboard available here gov.ie- Forest Statistics and Mapping (www.gov.ie). In addition my Department will issue a quarterly progress report for a comprehensive KPI update on implementation of the Licensing Plan.