Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 May 2022
758. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the breakdown of forestry licences relating to afforestation, roads, the reconstitution and underplanting scheme, private felling, and Coillte felling; the percentage of target his Department are at in each category from 31 January 2022 to 30 April 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24124/22]
View answerThe Department issued 4,050 forestry licences last year, which is an increase of 56% on the number issued in 2020, and met our revised target of 4,000 licences. It is our intention to build on this momentum in 2022.
The Forestry Licensing Plan was published and commenced in January 2022. The Plan sets out a range of forestry priorities set to run for the whole of 2022.
The main priorities are:
- A target of 5,250 new licences to issue, which is a year-on-year increase of 30%.
- A higher priority will be given to afforestation licences for 2022 with a 107% increase in output up to 1,040.
- There will be a year-on-year increase of 48% of private felling, roads and afforestation files. Coillte felling licences will maintain the levels they achieved in 2021.
As can be seen in the table below, as of 6th May 2022 the projected target of year to date licences to be issued was 1,818 and the output of licences was 1,739.
|
Scheme |
Output YTD Licences |
Target YTD Licences |
Percentage Target YTD Licences |
|
Felling (Private) |
521 |
630 |
28.47% |
|
Felling (Coillte) |
734 |
540 |
47.97% |
|
Afforestation |
207 |
360 |
19.90% |
|
Roads |
277 |
288 |
32.59% |
|
Total (licences) |
1,739 |
1,818 |
33.12% |
A main priority of Forestry Licensing Plan is that my Department will refocus on the delivery of approvals from several schemes including Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) (Ash Dieback), the Reconstitution of Woodland Scheme (Frost) and the Native Woodland Scheme. To the 6thMay 2022 38 RUS licences have been granted.
The Department will continue to issue progress updates weekly through our forestry dashboard available here gov.ie - 2022 Forestry Weekly Dashboard (www.gov.ie). In addition my Department will issue a quarterly progress report for a comprehensive KPI update on implementation of the Licensing Plan.
