The delays to tree felling licences have taken what has been a difficult year and made it worse in the forestry sector, Niall Grainger, MD of GP Wood in Cork, has said.

GP Wood is a supplier of sawn softwood products and has had to import wood from Germany and Belgium to supply to its customers and keep market share intact.

“What the world and country is going through [in relation to COVID-19] is a proper crisis, but in the context of our business, the impact has created an awful lot of issues,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.

No surprise

“This isn’t something that came as a surprise, it has been coming down the tracks. The licensing issue has been highlighted as far back as 2018. It has been flagged for a long time,” he said.

“One of the issues we have had is with serial appellants, but my big issue isn’t with those appellants. That’s like complaining that the fox got into the hens, but the focus should be on who left the gate open – the Department and its officials,” he said.

Grainger said that new legislation on appeals proposed by the Department needs to be implemented and applied.