Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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607. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the area of clear fell and thinning that is the subject of a felling licence application to his Department that remains to be licenced, per county, for each of the years 2024 to 2034, for the private sector, identifying broadleaf and conifer separately and the corresponding details for Coillte, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5929/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Felling licence applications may have an operational period of up to 10 years, with timings for harvesting events, whether thinning, clearfell or both, contained at periods within that. The following information has been obtained from Departmental records, and where a licence application had both a thinning and clearfell event, the hectares to be thinned or clearfelled are shown in their respective years. Some licence application areas may overlap between two counties. Please also note that Coillte licence applications currently only run to 2026 and represent two categories – Broadleaf high forest and Conifer high forest

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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608. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the area of clear fell and thinning that is licenced per county for 2024 to 2034; the details that are available to him on the felling licence application provided by the applicant, for the private sector, identifying broadleaf and conifer separately and the corresponding details for Coillte, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5930/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Felling licences may have an operational period of up to 10 years, with timings for harvesting events, whether thinning, clearfell or both, contained at periods within that. The following information has been obtained from Departmental records and where a licence had both a thinning and clearfell event, the hectares to be thinned or clearfelled are shown in their respective years. Some licensed areas may overlap between two counties. Please also note that Coillte licences currently only run to 2026 and represent two categories – Broadleaf high forest and Conifer high forest.

The tables below represent all clearfell events (both Coillte and private) as notified in licences up to 2034. It also represents all private thinning events as notified in licences up to 2034. Please note that the same private plot may be represented in different years below, as several forestry operations (thinning, clearfell) may occur across the lifetime of a forest.

">Licence details - 2024 to 2034

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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609. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to outline his Department's forestry licencing plan for 2025, particularly in terms of afforestation, roads, private felling licences and Coillte felling licences; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5931/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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My Department will publish the Forestry Licensing Plan for 2025 in the coming weeks, taking account of developments on foot of the recent storms, Darragh and Éowyn. The Plan will cover Afforestation, Roads, Private and Coillte felling licences.

It is likely that the profile of applications my department receives will be affected by the number of forests with windblow. My department will be better able to assess this once it has more information on the extent of the damage, which is being assessed using satellite imagery. It intends to prioritise and accelerate its turnaround times for felling and road storm damage applications and overall, will be committing to meeting turnaround times as set out in the Farmers Charter for the processing of other forestry licences.