Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue is being called on to take “immediate action” following the release of forestry figures that are being described as “abysmal”.
Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice was responding to the publication of the Forestry Dashboard for the week ending July 9, which, the TD pointed out, indicated that only 22 licences were issued, compared to 115 the previous week.
According to Fitzmaurice, 10 of those 22 licences were for Coillte felling applications, and just one was a private felling application.
Road and planting applications respectively accounted for six and five of the licences issued.
“While the Forest Service promised that it would deliver 100 applications a week to meet its target of 4,500, we are now beginning to see the reality,” Fitzmaurice argued.
“They were able to keep up the pace for a short time, but the critical problems within have come home to roost now,” he added.
The Roscommon-Galway TD called on the minister to recognise that the Forest Service was “not fit for purpose” and that “a major overhaul was needed”.
“I have given this department the benefit of the doubt and I have been monitoring the dashboard figures very closely every week. A drop in productivity of 80% in a single week is simply not good enough.
“The Green Party leader Eamon Ryan talks of targets of 8,000ha of afforestation to assist with meeting climate change objectives, yet we only have 2,685ha issued in the seven months of this year to date,” Fitzmaurice argued.
He said that, despite the appointment of Pippa Hackett to the role of Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, “no lasting improvements are noticeable”.
He concluded: “Given the thousands of applications on hold in the system, some for two years or more, the minister can no longer delay taking drastic action.”