Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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1625.To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if consideration is given to allowing tree felling licence applicants to alter the conditions of their application, if after tree felling the areas concerned begin to regenerate naturally in terms of biodiversity and wildlife; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31298/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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When a forest owner wishes to fell and reforest an area they submit a felling licence application detailing the proposed activities, which are considered by my Department. Natural regeneration may be considered by my Department at application stage as a component of the proposed reforestation but will only be permitted where deemed viable. Where natural regeneration is being proposed, the reforestation plan must detail safeguards to achieve the required stocking should natural regeneration prove inadequate.

It is important, regarding the effective and efficient running of our licensing system, that all efforts are made to deal with this at application stage and not after a licence has issued.

After a licence has issued, any change requests, including in this example, a request to change a portion of the replanting from direct planting to natural regeneration would need to be assessed on a case by case basis by my Department to examine if the change was acceptable and whether the change represented a material change that would require a variation to the licence.