Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett has welcomed further progress made to improve the forestry-licensing system and reform forestry policy in Ireland.

Minister Hackett, who has responsibility for land use and biodiversity, yesterday (Wednesday, April 6), chaired the ninth meeting of the Forestry Policy Group.

Addressing the current licensing situation, Minister Hackett said that improved output is a key objective of Project Woodland and the Forestry Licensing Plan outlines the ambition to significantly increase numbers this year. She added:

The department recently recruited additional ecologists which, the minister said, will have a further positive impact, particularly on the number of afforestation licences issued by the end of May.

The meeting heard from the project board and working-group chairs, and Irish Rural Link presented the findings of their report Assessment of Attitudes by Communities and Interested Parties on Forestry and Woodlands.

85% of respondents felt that there was too little forestry in Ireland, while 4% said there was too much and 11% considered forestry to be currently at the right amount.

Seamus Boland of Irish Rural Link added that 89% of respondents said that they would like to see more wood used in the construction sector, and 72% would like to see more wood used for energy production.

The report on the regulatory review of the forestry-licensing process will be central to the development of a new forestry strategy for Ireland.

The main purpose of their assessment was to gather views of communities towards forests and woodland which will help inform a 'Shared National Vision', according to Boland.

The report is now open for responses from members and will then be finalised and published shortly. Seamus added.:

The minister welcomed the Irish Rural Link report, and reminded that a public consultation on forestry in Ireland can still be accessed until Wednesday, April 27. She added that over 1,000 responses have already been submitted.