Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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414. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of frost reconstitution applications received by his Department to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27111/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine launched a Reconstitution of Woodland scheme to address frost damage earlier this year.  The scheme was set up due to significant late spring frost events which took place during May 2019, May 2020, and May 2021. 

The scheme was established to reconstitute newly planted forests significantly damaged by these frost events and replacing dead trees with plants of acceptable quality, provenances and species. It is also to provide for remedial pruning of damaged crops where damage is significant but not severe enough to warrant full replacement of stems. 

The scheme is open to private forest owners who planted during the period between 1st November 2017 and 1st June 2021 and whose entire plantations sustained a minimum of 30% losses are eligible to apply under the Scheme. 

My Department has received 142 applications in the Reconstitution of Woodland Scheme (Frost)  to date and the closing date for applications has been extended to Friday 31th May. We have committed in our 2022 Licensing Plan to delivering most of the approvals for this scheme this year.

Full scheme details are available on gov.ie - Schemes and Payments (www.gov.ie).

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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415. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the projected number of afforestation applications that his Department expect to approve for the month of June 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27112/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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During 2021, the Department issued 4,050 forestry licences, 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 in January 2022 and it sets out a range of forestry priorities for 2022.  A higher priority is being given to afforestation licences for 2022 with a 107% increase in output up to 1,040.  This equates to an average of 20 per week. It is inevitable, in the context of the annual target figures, that there will be fluctuations in licence output and across categories from week to week.

My Department has recently recruited a number of external ecologists who are focusing exclusively on afforestation with a view to increasing output further to meet the target for afforestation licences as set out in the Licensing Plan.  These improved outputs are expected to come through in the coming weeks.

I remain fully committed to delivering a licensing system which will meets the needs of the sector and of society and to delivering on our targets for 2022. My Department will continue to issue progress updates weekly through our forestry dashboard available here gov.ie - 2022 Forestry Weekly Dashboard (www.gov.ie).