Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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1780. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of times in 2022 that he or his Department officials met a private sector forestry association (details supplied) that demonstrated outside Government buildings in November 2021 over its concerns regarding private forestry licence output; the dates of those meetings; the participants; the agenda; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63775/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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It is the continued aim of both and I and Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has responsibility for the sector, to deliver a licensing system which meets the needs of all those who apply for forestry licences.  I am pleased to say licencing output continues to improve year on year and in 2022 that we issued 4,713 forestry licences last year, which was over 90% of our target. It was a record year for the licencing of both timber for felling and new forest roads.

We have recently concluded a public consultation on the next Forestry Programme on which submissions from many stakeholders, including the named Group, were submitted and are being fully considered. The Programme, as part of the Forest Strategy Implementation Plan, is subject to  public consultation as part of the Strategic Environmental Assessment/Appropriate Assessment process for a six week period which closed on the 29th of November.  The Department is currently integrating feedback from more than 150 submissions on the Forest Strategy Implementation Plan received through that process and in parallel is in discussions with the EU Commission on securing State Aid approval for the new Programme.

Both my Department and I continue engaged with stakeholders on the measures that will be considered for the new Forestry Programme. Four bilateral meetings took place with members of the Forestry Policy Group (FPG) and details of Programme development were presented to all members of the FPG in June 2022. I am satisfied that the FPG is fully representative of all relevant stakeholders from across the forestry sector.

More recently we have conducted a number of different bilateral meetings with relevant stakeholders including those from the the forestry sector and farm organisations to update on the plans for implementation of the Forestry programme and progress in securing the EU State Aid approval, including the interim scheme in place. We continue to keep any interested stakeholders updated on these as it progresses.