Department responds to Deputy McNamara on timber shortages

40% of the target of 4,500 forestry licences to issue in 2021 has been reached up to 9th July, according to figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The information was contained in the Department’s response to a Parliamentary Question by Clare Independent TD Michael McNamara who asked that the Minister consider easing regulations around the granting of felling licenses in view of the shortage of supply and rising cost of timber.

Up to 9th July, 1,836 forestry licences have issued – 1,164 tree felling; 308 afforestation and 364 forest road works licences.  The Department states that this represents 40% of the target of 4,500 licences to issue in 2021.  The afforestation licences cover 2,695ha of potential new forestry.  This is an increase of 21% on the area licensed to the same date in 2020 and a 5% increase in the number of afforestation licences issued.  Forest road works licence covering 151km of forest roads have issued to date.  The Department states that this far exceeds the Climate Action Plan target for 2021 of 125km of forest roads licensed.   A total volume of 3.594 million cubic metres has been licenced, which is 71% of the total volume licensed in 2020.  

Commenting on the shortage of supply and rising cost of timber, Deputy McNamara stated, “There is a lot of timber growing in Ireland and much of that is past the point of maturity. Many landowners across Clare are looking for felling licences. There is chaos in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, particularly in its forestry section.”

“Small one-off builders and self-builders are important to the supply of housing in Ireland, particularly in rural areas,” he added.  “Accessing materials, particularly timber, is increasingly difficult as supply is limited. A simple length of 4″ X 2″ was €8 last year and is now €13. One of the main builder’s suppliers in Clare is no longer stocking timber. Builders will not give quotes of more than a month’s duration because of inflation in the cost of supplies.”

In its response to Deputy McNamara’s Parliamentary Question, the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said, “In relation to the private sector supply, we have increased substantially the number of felling licences in recent months due to several system improvements and continued investment in ecology resources.  This has already resulted in June being the highest month for private felling licences in over five years.”

“I also remind the Deputy that I and previous Ministers have brought in significant legislation in order to assist with the ongoing situation in the forestry sector.  This includes SI 31 of 2020 that amongst other things allowed the Department to carry out Appropriate Assessments without the requirement of a Natura Impact Statement from the applicant.  I signed SI 417 of 2020 and SI 418 of 2020 and commenced the Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 to bring in a range of measures largely to allow for a more efficient running of the Forestry Appeals Committee and to bring our systems in line with the planning process,” he added.

Remainder of Minister’s response:

The situation with forestry licensing is a key priority for the Department, for me and Minister of State Pippa Hackett who has responsibility for the sector. I fully understand the seriousness of the situation with many landowners in terms of the delays encountered and the various issues with the wider sector.

Implementation of Project Woodland remains a key priority. I have already committed to commencing an end to end review of our systems and processes to be carried out by an external systems analyst that has already started work on this review.  In addition there will be a review of our legal and regulatory processes.  This review, to be carried out by an independent expert, will include an examination of  experiences in other Member States in licensing forestry activities and how they comply with EU legislation without experiencing the same issues that we have experienced in Ireland.  And from this what lessons we can bring in to our licensing systems.

 It is of course essential that any regulatory changes fully comply with EU law.

While these initiatives are being developed, the Department continues to pursue continual improvement.  We have recently reviewed the systems for the preparation of Appropriate Assessment Screening Determinations, Appropriate Assessment Reports and Appropriate Assessment Determinations.  Improvements have been made to the system to optimise the time of the ecologists to concentrate on the ecology aspects of each application.  

Currently, these improvements are only applied to private tree felling licence (TFL) applications, which has already yielded results with increased licences issued.  The ecologists have been working mostly on these felling applications in advance of the system being developed further for other licensed activities.  In the coming days the system will be rolled out for processing road files and the development of the system improvement to assist with processing afforestation files will commence over the next few weeks.