70% of all appeals to Environmental Commissioner in 2024 were on forestry
The Commissioner for Environmental Information today (Thursday, May 8) disclosed that 70% of appeals made to his office in 2024 related to requests for environmental information on forestry.
Ger Deering, the Commissioner for Environmental Information, said that last year, two public bodies – the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and Coillte – together received over 1,000 requests under Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) regulations for information related to forestry.
The requests for forestry information included requests for monitoring records, license inspections, and harvesting information.
According to the commissioner, the purpose of AIE regulations is to 'enable members of the public to have timely and easy access to environmental information' held by government bodies.
The 2024 annual review published by the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information today shows that it received 313 appeals in 2024, completed 286 appeals and had 424 appeals on hand at the end of the year.
It also issued 168 formal decisions.
Environmental Commissioner
The Environmental Commissioner said that demand for forestry information had increased in recent years and that DAFM Coillte, and all public bodies, should consider all options which would allow for the proactive dissemination of frequently requested material and avoid the need for an AIE requests.
The commissioner also highlighted today the number of decisions of public bodies he has had to overturn.
But there was some improvement in 2024 – of the 168 appeals that went to a binding decision in 2024, the commissioner overturned the public body's decision in 66% of cases down on the 2023 figure of 92%.
Some of the decisions that are highlighted in the 2024 annual review include the release of chemical information relating to Dublin Airport Authority and the release of forestry licence information held by Coillte.
Coillte
According to the Environmental Commissioner Coillte decided to refuse access to information sought under the AIE regulations relating to certain forestry felling licences granted to Coillte.
On October 10, 2022, an application was made to request access to unredacted 'updated' Appropriate Assessment Determination (AAD) documents associated with nine individual felling licenses granted to Coillte and in respect of which Coillte had been notified by the Forest Service, over the period June – July 2022, of a new Hen Harrier nesting site which overlaps with the licenced area.
Coillte refused access to the information because it said it highly confidential and that it only received the information from the Forestry Service for operational reasons.
However the commissioner directed that access be given to the information.
He noted that related information and Felling Licence Application Maps had already been provided to the requester including through a separate AIE request to Coillte.
The commissioner also said that the information that was the subject of the request did not contain any additional information that could narrow down the location of the nesting sites.
Deering said today: 'Proactive dissemination of information, without the need for an AIE request, has significant benefits for both the public and public bodies.
'It significantly reduces the administration required by public bodies to respond to AIE requests, while also allowing those who want to participate in environmental decision-making to do so easily and in an informed manner.'
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