998. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the governance arrangements are in place to ensure that appellants before the Forestry Appeals Committee have access to the procedures governing the conduct of their appeals, particularly while the FAC’s published Procedures are stated to be “currently being updated". [65461/26]

The Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC) is a separate legal entity from the Agriculture Appeals Office and operates on a separate statutory basis. The FAC was established under the Agriculture Appeals Act, 2001 as amended, to provide an appeals service against decisions on forestry licence applications made to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Its establishment allows a right of review by an independent body of forestry licencing decisions by my Department. As such it formulates its procedures independently.

Specifically, the FAC procedures are made under section 14B and 14C of the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001, as amended by the Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020, as amended, and associated Regulations. These provisions set out the conduct of the FAC as it applied to appeals procedures. The FAC operates at all times as per the legislation set out above.

The practicalities of making an appeal to FAC are also set out on the FAC website here: Agriculture Appeals Office - Forestry Appeals Committee https://.agriappeals.gov.ie/forestryappealscommittee/