The “formal process and submission” to secure approval for Ireland’s proposed new €1.3 billion Forestry Programme is now underway with the European Commission, according to Minister of State, Pippa Hackett.
Minister Hackett, who has responsibility for land use and biodiversity, told the Dáil that the Irish government had been “informally engaging with the commission in recent months but I am glad to report the formalised process is now under way”.
The proposed €1.3 billion Forestry Programme 2023-2027 is subject to state aid approval by the European Commission before it can be implemented in Ireland.
In the meantime, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has approved “interim” schemes for afforestation and roads.
The schemes are based on the de minimis rule which effectively makes them exempt from state aid rules.
According to Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on agriculture and food, Deputy Claire Kerrane, many farmers “have lost faith in forestry”.
The Roscommon and Galway TD said it was “important to get the forestry programme right” to ensure that farmers had faith in the system.
Deputy Kerrane had raised the issue of forestry felling licensing backlogs during a Dáil debate this week and queried why some farmers and forestry owners had been give two-year rather than 10 year licences.
According to Minister Hackett the “backlog of licences on hand more than four months reduced from 6,000 applications in August 2021 to 3,700 at the start of 2022 and 1,840 to April 14 this year.”
The minister added: “My department continues to issue and accept felling licence applications and, to date, has issued 909 felling licences.
“As of April 14, 2023, there were a total of 2,238 felling licence applications on hand, with 1,199 of these on hand more than 120 days, which is how we used to define a backlog.”
Minister Hackett said she also intends to publish a new forestry licensing plan once the new forestry programme has been approved.
But Deputy Kerrane told the minister that the length of time that some farmers have had to wait for licences -whether for felling or forestry – had been frustrating for them and that “backlogs have caused significant problems”.
Minister Hackett said:
“I acknowledge the concerns and frustrations of forest owners in recent years at having to wait too long, quite frankly, for their licences.
“The work that has been done in my department in the past two years, however, has significantly improved that.”
She also detailed in the Dáil that licences are issued “based on the requirements of the licence”.
“They can be for up to ten years. If applicants indicate that they intend to fell within a year or so, they will only get a two-year licence, but they can engage with their registered forester if they need an extension to the licence that has been granted,” the minister stated.
In response Deputy Kerrane said the standard license was for 10 years.
“It is important that be in place and that farmers and forest owners have clarity in that regard.
“That will feed into what it is hoped will be a much more successful forestry programme than we have had to date,” the Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on agriculture and food said.