Labour TD Sean Sherlock has said that the years long delays involved in the granting of a forestry licence are unacceptable, and has called for the process to be expedited.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Sherlock said that foresters are extremely frustrated by the bureaucracy in the DAFM in relation to the granting of a licence to fell and replant trees.
He also questioned Minister of State with responsibility for land use and biodiversity Pippa Hackett’s handling of the delays, saying he would act quickly and ask questions if he were in her position.
“If I was the Minister of State with responsibility for forestry now, and if a member of this committee raised a matter concerning a particular file, then I would say that I wanted that file on my desk in the department in the afternoon.
“I would read that file, and then I would ask questions regarding why this system is not working and I would be asking why things were not happening,” Sherlock said.
According to Sherlock, there is also a perception that within the application process, priority is given to Coillte. Speaking at the meeting, he said:
“There is a perception, that preference and priority is given to Coillte applications and that the screening, and the rules for screening, do not seem to apply as rigorously to Coillte applications as they do to applications coming from private forestry owners.”
The deputy raised the case of one individual who has been in the process of getting a forestry licence for four years now, and has even hired a consultant to help her to manage the steps involved.
“This person’s consultant, a person who adheres to the most rigorous professional standards, made the application and did the harvest plan for her. After years interacting with the service, he is now saying he cannot understand why this applicant is not getting her licence,” Sherlock said.
Sherlock said he and those waiting for an answer are “deeply frustrated” as there is potential within the forestry sector to assist with the mitigation of climate change, yet it is not being allowed to do so.
“If there is a target of 8,000 ha, why is that not being reached? There are private foresters, who want to make their contribution to achieving this but they cannot see how they are going to do that now,” he added.
The lengthy application process is now deterring foresters from entering the industry said Sherlock. He told the committee that he has heard first hand that the bureaucracy involved with forestry licenses is taking the “honest-to-goodness farmers out of the equation”.
“If confidence among these people is dampened, then it will be very difficult to regenerate it,” he concluded.