Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Implementation of the Mackinnon report is well under way through Project Woodland, which was established by Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, over a year ago to improve the licensing system and deal with the backlog, and to drive forward the planting of trees under a shared vision for forestry in Ireland. I am pleased to report that significant progress has been made.

All recommendations are actively in progress, with some completed. I will take this opportunity to summarise progress on specific items.

An end-to-end review of the licencing process has been completed and recommendations arising from that review have moved to the  implementation stage.

A legal and regulatory review of forestry licensing has been carried out and following extensive stakeholder engagement is near finalisation and a draft report has been presented to the Project Board.

The consultation on the new Forestry Strategy is underway, with a public attitudes survey and a community engagement survey already completed while bilateral engagement with key stakeholders is nearing completion following widespread engagement. 

Over 3,000 submissions have been received on an online public consultation on the future of forests in Ireland, which closed for submissions on 27^thApril.  These submissions will be examined in detail over the next few weeks and will feed in to the formation of the new Forestry Strategy and Programme which are due for completion by the end of 2022.

A deliberative dialogue on our forests took place on 10th and 14th May, similar in format to the citizens assembly, consisting of 99 citizens representing the general demographic of our population and again, output from this event will feed into the new Strategy and Programme.

Through various initiatives of Project Woodland and increased efficiencies and staffing within my Department, the forestry licencing backlog has been reduced by 50%, from over 6,000 at the start of the Project to approximately 3000 licence applications currently.The forestry licencing plan for 2022 details a range of forestry priorities for 2022, the delivery of which will reduce the backlog further. 

Pre-application discussions on forestry licence applications, are being piloted across six regions currently while work has progressed on the introduction of an environmental grant to cover additional costs associated with Appropriate Assessment under the Habitats Directive. Sanction is awaited from Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for the payment of this grant at form 2 stage.

A training needs analysis for forestry licencing and an organisational review of the Department’s Forestry divisions will be undertaken in 2022, while a communications strategy for forestry, a Forestry Customer Charter and a review of the role of COFORD will also be finalised. 

Work under Project Woodland will continue throughout 2022 to fully deliver on the Mackinnon recommendations.