Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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703. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of ash dieback reconstitution and underplanting scheme approvals that his Department will approve in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25797/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I refer the Deputy to his Dáil question number 860 of 29^thMarch, and to question 896 of 5^thApril that 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 disease through the Reconstitution Scheme (Ash Dieback) (introduced in 2013) and more recently the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS – Ash dieback) introduced in July 2020.

Applications for RUS are received regularly, and decisions are issued as the assessment of the applications are completed. 

Up until the 20^thMay, the Department has approved 46 RUS applications to date this year.  These approvals are included in the weekly Forestry Licencing Dashboard available here www.gov.ie/en/publication/3b8b5-2022-forestry-weekly-dashboard/.

As the Deputy is likely to be aware, 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 - 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).  However, as the Deputy is aware the 2022 Plan does not include an annual target as 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 is continuing to engage positively with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, who are drafting legislation with the objective of removing the planning permission requirement of broadleaf with conifers on sites under 10 hectares.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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704. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when the plans for stakeholder engagement on the next forestry programme will be finalised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25798/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware aware, a national shared vision for the future of Ireland's trees and forests and a new Forestry Strategy are currently being developed. 

An extensive public consultation process on the new strategy is underway. Bilateral stakeholder meetings have taken place over the last number of months. A public attitudes survey and a community engagement survey have already been completed and presented to the Forestry Policy Group.  An online public consultation was open from 16^thMarch to 27^thApril and over 3,000 responses were submitted. A deliberative dialogue in the form of a national event took place over the week ending the 15th May.

The new Forest Strategy will underpin a new Forestry Programme for the period 2023 - 2027. My Department will engage further with stakeholders on the measures that will be considered for the new Programme and details of this engagement will be made available in the coming weeks. The Programme will also be subject to a Strategic Environmental Analysis/Appropriate Assessment process, and this will include public consultation on the draft plans and Environmental Report.