The Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has said that in September, there was an improvement in the number of forestry licences issued by the Department of Agriculture.

There were 110 licences issued in the week ending 3 September, a further 136 in the following week and then 147 licences issued in the week ending 17 September, the Minister outlined in response to a parliamentary question by Green Party TD Francis Noel Duffy.

“Certain High Court decisions have changed the processing of forestry licence applications, resulting in approximately 80% of applications being screened in for a comprehensive ecological assessment, a situation for which the Department was not prepared.

It is unlikely that our target of 4,500 will be met this year and it will be closer to 4,000

The Department increased its ecologist numbers to 27 to deal with the backlog, as well as adding an extra 21 forestry inspectors, McConalogue said.

However, the Minister said a new legal requirement for an additional 30-day public consultation, introduced mid-year, had affected licence throughput in June and July.

“It is unlikely that our target of 4,500 will be met this year and it will be closer to 4,000,” he said.

Also, despite recruiting extra ecologists, only 46 licences with ecology input were issued for July and August

A spokesperson for one of the forestry companies said that while weekly licences exceeded 140 for September, the number issued for the first week this month has already fallen to 97, “which is a trend we have seen before. Also, despite recruiting extra ecologists, only 46 licences with ecology input were issued for July and August, even though the target for the two months was 440”, the spokesperson claimed.

Afforestation

Teige Ryan of None-so-Hardy Nurseries maintained that despite the increase in overall licences, the situation had continued to deteriorate for afforestation.

“While weekly licences had increased to 147, an average of eight were issued for afforestation, which has made minimal impact on the 1,000 outstanding planting licences. Only five licences were issued for afforestation last week, while Coillte received 52 felling licences.

“This imbalance has to be corrected if the Government is serious about achieving a sustainable planting programme, because at this rate, we will be lucky to plant 2,000ha this year,” Ryan said.