Fórsa, which represents staff at the state forestry company Coillte, has said the current legislation governing tree-felling licences, and the appeals process that operates as part of the legislation, pose an existential threat to the survival of the company and the industries that rely on timber supply.

The union said the Minister for Agriculture and the Government have the power to stop any potential job losses in the forestry industry because such losses “would be the result of a broken regulatory and licencing system.”

The union has warned that up to 12,000 jobs are at risk as a consequence of delays in the appeals process. The Department of Agriculture’s Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC) is processing appeals at a rate of around 20 per month, while 400 appeals remain outstanding.

The 2014 Forestry Act governs the forestry licencing and appeals system in Ireland. Union representatives at Coillte said the process means anyone can appeal any licence "whether the appeal has merit or not." Fórsa and Coillte have said the process has led to a situation where every licence is appealed, generating a backlog in the system which has the potential to shut down the Irish forestry industry.

Fórsa representative at Coillte Pat Neville explained: “The delays mean that we could run out of timber to sell off before the end of the year. We have already cancelled a number of timber auctions this year. 

“The knock-on effect is that Coillte jobs, and the jobs supported by the supply of timber throughout the country, will be put at risk unless we can improve the efficiency of the appeals process,” he said.

Mr Neville said a full review of the adequacy of the current system is required, and confirmed both the union and Coillte have lobbied the agriculture minister to undertake such a review.

He added, “We’ve continued to identify contingency volumes and rescheduled limited licensed material in order to limit supply disruption. However, despite those additional resources and huge efforts by our technical and operations teams, we are now at a point of crisis, and it has potential ramifications for the entire industry, as well as the industries, such as construction, that rely on our timber supply.”

Fórsa official Johnny Fox added: “Coillte has our full support on this issue because so many jobs are at stake. While it is reasonable to have an appeals process for the purposes of transparency, the current system is flawed and is now actively undermining the entire industry. The Government needs to put in place the necessary resources for the FAC to process all the remaining appeals within the next three months. Without action the industry faces a catastrophic blow,” he said.

Fórsa has outlined its proposals on the need to amend the legislation and deploy additional resources in a submission as part of the public consultation on the draft Agricultural Appeal Amendment Bill 2020.

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