James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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699. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of a felling licence (details supplied) submitted approximately three to four months ago; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7175/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The Felling Licence application in this case was received by my Department in September 2024.This was ‘screened-in’ for Appropriate Assessment in accordance in with the Habitats Directive. Screened-in applications are required to do a 2nd stage public consultation. This application is currently undergoing its 2nd public consultation. The last date for submissions to be received for that public consultation is 07/03/2025. After this date the application will be referred back my Department to complete its Appropriate Assessment Determination and from there a final decision will issue.

My Department’s processing goals are six months for screened-out applications and nine months for screened-in applications. However, my Department strives to process licences as soon as possible, subject to the statutory public consultation(s) time periods.

Please be aware that there is a licence application tracker available to applicants and foresters to monitor the progress of their Afforestation, Road or Felling application. Registered foresters can access the Licence Tracker through iNET and applicants can access through their Agfood account. If an applicant does not have an account for Agfood, they can register here:. Once registration is completed a Personal Access Code will be issued by post.