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The Department of Agriculture has failed to shoehorn an amendment to the Agriculture Appeals Act that would have introduced a fee for appealing forestry planning.
Currently there is no fee to appeal forestry planning but an amendment to the social welfare bill had been requested by the Department of Agriculture, despite concerns voiced by the Attorney General.
“The Attorney General told me yesterday that if he had a choice, he would not be advising us to do it,” Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty told deputies during the bill’s committee stage.
“I believe it will introduce an increase in the fee charged for making an [forestry] appeal.”
She continued: “It has been deemed to be urgent enough to be inserted into the next available legislation, which just happens to be this bill.”
However, Department sources confirmed that forestry legislation would now not be included in social welfare legislation. The Government and An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar have given a public commitment to increase forestry in Ireland to help combat climate change.
“We want many more trees in Ireland, as part of our plan on climate action. 440m is a huge number but it’s achievable if all landowners plant just some of their land. We are willing to make it financially worthwhile,” Varadkar said.
Community threat
However, the sector is mired in controversy as many people in certain counties see forestry as a threat to community life. Over 1,000ac of Leitrim forestry planning was appealed last year.
The Department would not confirm if it was considering fresh legislation to introduce a fee for forestry appeals. However, a Department-commissioned report on forestry was published last Friday and recommends that fees are introduced and the attempt to introduce appeal fees in the social welfare bill was made over two weeks before the report was made public.
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