The average waiting time for private felling licence decisions in 2022 was more twice the waiting time for Coillte applications.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) took an average of 17 months to make a decision on felling licence applications from private forestry owners.
This is compared to an average waiting time of eight months for a decision on an application made by Coillte.
Licence
The data was released by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue in response to a parliamentary question from Fine Gael TD and former Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe.
The Wexford TD asked for the average time it took to approve all afforestation licences, private felling licences, and Coillte felling licences granted by the minister’s department in 2022.
Minister McConalogue said that there was a year-on-year increase in the number of licences issued by DAFM last year.
“We issued 4,713 licences which was 1,100 more than applications received,” he said.
The minister outlined that 702 afforestation licences were issued, the average waiting time for a decision on those applications was 17 months.
718 licences were issued for forestry roads, with an average waiting time of 10 months.
Licence Type Average Months to Decision No. of Licences Issued Afforestation 17 702 Forest Road 10 718 Private Felling 17 1,607 Coillte Felling 8 1,686 Grand Total 4,713
The data shows that there were 1,686 felling licences issued to Coillte in 2022, while 1,607 licences were granted to private owners.
“We are working towards reducing the turnaround times for afforestation and private felling licences.
“We will be committing to dedicated timelines for all forestry licences under my departments’ Farmers’ Charter of Rights, which has been the subject of ongoing discussions with the farm bodies and is approaching finalisation,” Minister McConalogue said.