Get a NIS if you want a forestry licence

Wait nine months for a DAFM ecologist to work on your licence

Be prepared to hire a suitably qualified person to prepare a Natura Impact Statement if applying for a forestry licence.

With a current waiting time of over nine months for an ecologist in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to work on a forestry licence application, applicants have been advised that submitting a Natura Impact Statement (NIS) for the licence would significantly speed up processing.

Delays are due to a large number of forestry-related applications awaiting completion of the Appropriate Assessment legal requirement to rule out the possibility of an adverse effect on an EU-designated site (Special Area of Conservation or Special Protection Area).

Whenever an application is referred to the DAFM’s Ecology unit, usually because a designated site is nearby, the NIS is necessary.

Applicants who have a satisfactory NIS prepared by a suitably qualified person at their own expense are likely to have their application dealt with up to seven months faster.

DAFM ecologists will provide written guidance by describing issues on which a NIS must focus.

Applicants who have or are prepared to submit a NIS, where appropriate, will be prioritised.

IFA Farm Forestry Chair Vincent Nally has said rising costs and bureaucracy associated with getting a licence force applicants to the end of a very long queue of licence applications, if applying for a smaller forest that cannot justify the cost of a NIS.

Meanwhile, the Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 has been signed into law and secondary legislation passed to give effect to the Act.

It provides a number of mechanisms to improve the efficiency and delivery of services by:

• Increasing the capacity of the Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC) to determine appeals by enabling it to sit in divisions of itself.
• Enabling the FAC to determine appeals without an oral hearing where it is possible to properly dispose of an appeal in that manner.
• Introducing a fee set at €20 for persons making an application for a forestry licence and those who wish to make a submission on a forestry licence application.
• The new regulations also set a fee of €200 for an appeal against a decision on a forestry licence application.
• Allowing all interested parties to appeal directly to the FAC, with no restrictions on access.