Investments in a subsidiary and a proposed energy deal with ESB boosted borrowings at State forestry company Coillte last year. Licensing issuesDepartment of Agriculture delays in issuing licences needed to fell, plant and transport trees hampered Coillte’s main forestry business. Ms Hurley said that Coillte had licences to cut trees in areas that it could not access as it needed permits to build roads. “The potential impact of Brexit was overshadowed by Covid-19 and we were also impacted by the forestry licensing crisis which resulted in major timber supply shortages,” she said. The company noted that demand for timber in the Republic and UK, its main markets, remained reasonably strong, but licensing issues continued to restrict timber supply.

Source: The Irish Times April 30, 2021 11:14 UTC