Despite reassurances this week that the forestry-licensing appeals process is now functioning efficiently, it was the pace at which actual forestry licences are being granted that received all the attention from members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (JOCAFM).
Confirmation from DAFM officials that targets for 2021 will not be achieved – in relation to afforestation and number of licences – was met with frustration as the committee reconvened after the summer recess.
DAFM officials, including secretary general, Brendan Gleeson, were held to account on the state of the sector, with committee members asking for clarity on why so few licences have been granted so far this year; whether the targeted afforestation for 2021 will be achieved; and what is being done to improve the sector.
Forestry in numbers:
- Target of 4,500 licences in 2021: will not be met;
- Target of 8,000ha afforestation in 2021: will not be met;
- 5,300 licence applications in system (to July);
- Last week: 136 licences granted;
- July: 46 licences granted per week (on average);
- Licence-approval time frame: ranging from 1 to 1,008 days;
- Number of ecologists in DAFM ecology division: 1 in 2018, 27 in 2021;
- Number of forestry inspectors: 40 in 2020, 61 in 2021;
- Forestry appeals: fewer than 50 currently, versus 1,000 previously;
- 30 days: delay to current applications due to new 30-day consultation legislation.
Today, that debate made its way to the Dáil, with independent TD for Laois-Offaly, Carol Nolan calling on the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Leo Varadkar, to introduce emergency legislation aimed at tackling the ongoing crisis within the forestry sector.
The matter was raised with Minister Varadkar during ‘questions on promised legislation’.
Echoing the sentiments of the JOCAFM, Deputy Nolan said it was clear that, despite all of the measures the DAFM says it has taken – increased numbers of ecologists and inspectors in the forestry-licensing division – “nothing is working to bring this crisis to an end”.
She labelled the crisis that is dominating the forestry sector “a national scandal and an embarrassment that is fuelling construction-cost increases, placing thousands of rural jobs at risk and damaging the reputation of the forestry sector”.
“Government needs to accept that the entire licensing regime needs a radical overhaul. It needs to be simplified. We cannot have a situation where saw-mills in Laois-Offaly and beyond continue to import timber because of their inability to access material locally or nationally.”
Forestry targets won’t be met
Addressing similar concerns at the JOCAFM this week, DAFM secretary general, Brendan Gleeson said that, while the afforestation target of 8,000ha will not be met in 2021, it is certainly a national target for the future.
He said that there is now a system in place that is capable of processing 100 licences per week.
He accepted that there is still a great deal of work to be done in relation to the licensing issue but explained that steps are being taken to improve the situation.
“The Department is dedicating additional resources specifically to afforestation. This includes a team of 10 ecologists which now works specifically on afforestation. Our aim is to issue considerably more of these licences in the run up to the planting season on November 1,” he said.
An external review of the forestry-licensing system is also expected to commence very shortly, as Minister of State, Pippa Hackett announced this evening (Thursday, September 16) that an independent bidder had been selected to undertake the task.
He added that the forestry sector in Ireland is a highly contested one but said that great progress had been made in the appeals area which, at one time, had 1,000 such cases holding up projects.
More recently, he said, a drop off in the number of licences granted was attributed to a new Statutory Instrument (SI) introduced by the Department of Housing in late June, which saw the introduction of an additional 30-day consultation period.
This (SI) is now built into the system, and such a delay will be avoided in future, he said.
He rebutted any suggestion – of which there were a few – that there was a connection between a rise in the number of licences granted recently, and the officials’ appearance at the JOCAFM.
He also stated that it was unacceptable for anyone to be waiting for an answer to a licence application for a year or two or more, adding that a triage team had been put in place to deal with such instances.
JOCAFM chair, Deputy Jackie Cahill, said that the committee continues to return to this issue is because of the genuine concern that exists for the sector.
Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice spoke of a man who waited 2.5 years for a licence that never came. That man has since ploughed his land, abandoned forestry, and will not return to it, he said.
“In reality, forestry is a dirty word in rural Ireland. There are a lot of people out of jobs and contractors who have lost machinery. The problem is you aren’t making any headway,” Deputy Fitzmaurice told the officials.
The committee urged the officials to put in more effort into the final quarter of 2021 and strive to get as many licences as possible issued.