Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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23. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures that are being put in place to meet forestry licence targets and address the current backlog; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38169/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As Deputies will be aware, I established Project Woodland to improve the forestry licensing system and deal with the backlog, and to drive forward the planting of trees under a shared vision for forestry in Ireland.

As part of the work undertaken to deliver on the Project, a legal and regulatory review of forestry licensing was carried out by Philip Lee Solicitors and, following extensive stakeholder engagement, their Report was published on 29th June, 2022.

Philip Lee reviewed and critically analysed the existing EU and domestic legal framework for the licensing of forestry activities, including relevant case law. In addition, the Report focuses on practical and implementable options for streamlining processes and procedures, having regard to arrangements in other European countries, and the constraints imposed under EU law as interpreted by the Courts.

My Department is now developing an action plan for the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Report, with the implementation of certian recommendations already under way.

Work is also on-going with the implementation of the 57 recommendations arising from a business process review carried out under Project Woodland. An Agile Implementation Group is implementing system solutions, including new functionality, arising from that review, with 39% of all recommendations either complete or in progress..

This work builds on earlier improvements to our processes. These improvements have facilitated the preparation of Appropriate Assessment Reports by my Department, which removes this burden from applicants in most cases. Associated with this and in order to assist foresters in submitting quality applications, we recently provided habitat map training and we are shortly due to roll out training specifically for ecologists. Furthermore, a pre-application discussion pilot has been completed and we now intend to deliver this at a national level. All of these measures are aimed at improving the quality of applications received, and at opitmising the time of those assessing applications.

Furthermore, in tandem with looking at processes, I have substantially increased the resources available to process forestry licences, with 35 ecologists now dealing with licence applications.

I believe these efforts have had a positive impact as we have issued 2,449 licences to end June which is 93% of our projected average at this point in the year. As regards addressing the backlog, my Department has 3,148 applications on hand. Since 1st January, this figure has reduced from 4,800 and from 6,000 in August 2021.This is significant progress. The number of applications now in backlog i.e over 120 days now stands at 2,573.

We will continue to focus on improvements to the system and to assist those who are engaging with it by means of improved communication and training.