Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 May 2023
540. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department remains committed to issuing 100 tree felling licences per week; if he will provide an update on how many licences have been issued per week since 1 April 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22779/23]
View answerThe Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine published the Forestry Licensing Plan 2022 in February last year. The plan informed stakeholders of our targets for the delivery of afforestation, felling and forest road licences, and of our commitment to reducing the backlog and committed to issuing 100 licences, of all types, per week. The Plan committed to issuing 65 felling licences per week.
There is obvious merit in signalling to forest owners, landowners, and the forest sector our intentions as regards licensing which is why I intend to publish a new Forestry Licensing Plan once the new Forestry Programme has been approved at national and EU levels.
As the previous Forestry Programme has finished, my Department is not currently in a position to issue licences for grant aided afforestation and roads. Felling licences are unaffected. In order to allow those with unused licences under the previous Programme up to 31st December 2022 to plant we introduced a De Minimus Scheme. As well as the new licences issued per week set out below, my Department has also processed applications from those who have opted into the De minimus scheme
Our efforts at faster processing of forestry licences has been hugely successful over the last 18 months. In August we had 6,100 licences on hand for processing and that figure is now down to just over 2,500. This number continues to reduce each week. We issued over 1,100 more licences in 2022 than we received in applications.
Licences issued in the month of April
|
Week ending |
Felling |
Afforestation |
Roads |
|
07/04/2023 |
59 |
0 |
0 |
|
14/04/2023 |
64 |
0 |
7 |
|
21/04/2023 |
48 |
0 |
3 |
|
28/04/2023 |
65 |
0 |
4 |
|
05/05/2023 |
44 |
1 |
0 |
|
12/05/2023 |
70 |
0 |
5 |
