Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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584. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the expenditure by the forest service of his Department is in line with budget for the months of July and August 2022, thereby ensuring that there is no underspend again in this Department for 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45438/22]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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586. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide a breakdown of the expenditure by the forest service of his Department for the months of July and August 2022 versus July and August 2021 and to date in 2022, to enable comparison in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45440/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 584 and 586 together.

Expenditure by the Forest Service, DAFM - the months of July and August 2022 versus July and August 2021; and to date in 2022.

The spending in July and August this year, and the overall year to date expenditure is in excess of last year and, the spend for 2022 exceeds the profiled amount of €60,641,730.  The remainder of the forestry budget has been apportioned to meet anticipated budgetary needs during the year and will be closely monitored.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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585. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide a breakdown of the actual applications versus the phased projected monthly plan for licence and scheme applications in his Department’s plan for Coillte felling, private felling, roads, afforestation, and ash dieback RUS for the months of July and August 2022 and to date in 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45439/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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There is an overall significant increase on all licensing categories year to date compared with last year. Up to 9th September, we have issued 3,355 licences, just behind the projected average of 3,636, In fact, in the last 12 months from Sept 2021 to the end of August, DAFM have delivered 5,100 licences

Afforestation figures are 64% of year to date target.  However July and August have shown significant signs of improvement as a result of the new ecologists starting to issue licences.  We are embarking on an intensive effort over the last few weeks and next few weeks to prioritise afforestation with an aim of clearing older files ahead of the new forestry programme.

As regards RUS while we committed in our Licensing Plan to increasing output this year, the Plan does not include an annual target as many RUS applications are screened in for Appropriate Assessment and are referred to ecology.  There are 521 applications currently in the system, of which 257 are referred to Ecology. Any applications that propose replacing the ash crop with conifer species currently require planning permission.

We have had successful engagement with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in relation to this requirement for planning permission. From those discussions we expect that legislation to remove the requirement for planning permission in all cases under 10 hectares will be introduced after the Summer recess. 

I attach a table outlining output vs target in each of the licensing categories.

Coillte Licence Applications Jan. - Sept. '22

In the interest of full transparency details of all licences issued by category are available on the weekly dashboard. This is published on the Departmental website and is made available to all interested parties as well as being submitted to the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine each week.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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587. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the Forest Service of his Department is on track to deliver on the commitment in the Forestry Licencing Plan 2022 to approve 350 applications for reconstitution of woodland scheme – frost damage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45555/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) 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 was 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 were eligible to apply under the Scheme.  The scheme was open for applications from Wednesday, January 19th, 2022 with a closing date for applications of Tuesday 31st May , 2022.

DAFM is currently processing all applications received.

Full scheme details are available on www.gov.ie/en/collection/73aea-schemes-and-services-agriculture-food-and-the-marine/#forestry.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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588. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the cost for the ecological input into each file processed through the ecology unit of the Forest Service of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45556/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Since the middle of 2019, ecologists have been required to play a significantly larger role in licensing than previously was the case.  This is as a result of the Departments implementation of the findings of CJEU and High Court cases in relation to how projects are required to be processed.

By 2021, the Department had increased significantly the ecology resources.  By the end of last year, over 4,050 licence approvals in addition to a small number of non-licence scheme approvals had been processed during the year most of which required ecology input.  Ecologists are involved in many different roles but are mostly dealing with licence and scheme approvals. 

While there is a wide variation in the effort required for each file it is estimated that the average ecology cost per file for ecology input is around €650 to €700 euros in 2021.  

So far this year there is an overall significant increase on all licensing categories year to date compared with last year. (2021 average 78 licences per week, 2022 so far 92 licences per week)

At the start of the year we set a target of 5,250 licences for 2022.  Currently, judging by the year to date figures we are set to hit about 92% of that overall target.

In the last 12 months from Sept 2021, DAFM have delivered 5,100 licences

In terms of felling, between what was licensed last year and this year there is a very large supply of timber available to be felled.  It has also been a very good year for forest road licensing.

The quality of the information supplied for felling and roading is very good, generally with good quality harvest plans and road specifications.

Afforestation figures are 64% of year to date target.  However July and August and to date in September have shown significant signs of improvement as a result of the new contract ecologists starting to issue licences.  We are embarking on an intensive effort over the last few weeks and next few weeks to prioritise afforestation with an aim of clearing all older files by year end ahead of the new forestry programme.  

Year to date, an average of only 8 afforestation applications (291 total) have been received per week compared with an average of 13 licensed approvals per week (474 total).  As we get through the last few hundred older files on hand, we will increasingly be relying on a significant increase of new files to drive the output of licences.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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589. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if brash harvesting is permitted under the standards for felling and reforestation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45557/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Lop-and-top or brash are terms given to the side branches and tops of trees that are normally cut from the main stem and left on site during harvesting operations.  There is no licence requirement if a landowner wishes to remove some of this material from a site.

The Department's 'Standards for Felling and Reforestation' specifies the use of brash in creating and maintaining dense mats of brash and branch wood on all machine routes, to avoid soil damage, erosion and sedimentation.  Brash mats are typically concentrated on primary routes and in the junction of extraction paths and landing sites.

Removing lop on top or brash from site is not described in the Standards for felling and reforestation. I Like any non-licensed activities it is important that it is done in such a way that it does not interfere with the licence conditions being met. I understand lop and top or brash is sometimes removed from sites and used as a biomass for wood fuel.  This should only be done on certain sites where the operation will not have any adverse effects on water quality.