The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s targeted figures for forestry licences this year – which were published last week – would, even if achieved, delivery less that 50% of licence needs for the private forestry sector.

That’s according to the Social, Economic and Environmental Forestry Association (SEEFA), which is calling on Minister Charlie McConalogue to publish the department’s planned output of forestry licences and scheme approvals for 2022.

The group is insisting that this planned output “must match the requirements of the private forestry industry for 2022”.

Following the publication last week of the targets for licencing the department is aspiring to, SEEFA claimed that the targets are “a direct result of political ineptitude married to senior civil servant incompetence”.

“Even of the department meets the cotton soft targets for output contained in the plan, which it has never done before, it delivers less than 50% of the requirements of the private sector for 2022,” the organisation argued.

SEEFA went on to say that the plan “means more of the wrong people will lose their jobs in the private forestry sector in 2022”.

“It is a plan that guarantees underspend in the forestry sector in the department again in 2022… [Minister Hackett] should immediately publish the detailed phased workings behind these projections,” it added.

“Such workings must contain detailed monthly projected output per licence and scheme type.

“It is a ‘business as usual’ approach from…politicians and civil servants who are not listening to anyone, even their own peers,” the group claimed.

SEEFA is calling on Minister McConalogue to “personally intervene” and revise the licencing plan to “ensure it delivers on the requirements of the private forestry sector in 2022”.

It is also calling on the department to publish its monthly phased budgetary expenditure for the forestry budget and thereafter publish its actual expenditure and declare its underspend on a monthly basis.

“In effect, this monthly underspend is the extent to which the department is squeezing the lifeblood out of the private forestry sector every month.”

SEEFA claims that Ireland has failed to sequester five million tonnes of carbon in the past five years due to missed afforestation targets.