When a forest owner receives a felling licence, there is a requirement by the Department to erect a sign at the forest property with information about the harvesting type, townland, licence number and the name of the licensee with signature.

These last two requirements were contested by the Association of Irish Forestry Consultants (AIFC) first to the Department last February and later to the Data Protection Commission (DPC).

Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity Pippa Hackett has rejected the AIFC claim, but the DPC has now “advised that the Department should reconsider their current position and consider amending the tree felling site notice forms, to remove the requirement for a named individual to be included”.

Invasion of privacy

“This matter could have been readily resolved by the minister amending what is required on the notice to conform with the Forestry Act 2014, but she chose not to,” said chair of the AIFC Dermot Houlihan.

“We had no option but to make a submission to the DPC to obtain a ruling on the validity and legality of placing the name of licensees on notices as we saw it as an invasion of privacy.”

Houlihan said that following their initial correspondence with the Department and review of the relevant legislation (Section 17 (4) of the Forestry Act 2014 and Section 4 Forestry Regulations, 2017 (Si No. 191/2017)), the DPC “informed the Department of Agriculture that it is unclear whether the legislation requires the name of the applicant to be included on the Tree Felling Site Notices”.

After advising the Department to “reconsider their current position” the DPC stated in its reply to the AIFC legal representative: “We expect discussions to be ongoing with the Department of Agriculture and we will update you when there is further information and/or discourse.”

Houlihan said: “The DPC is advising the Department to change the required information put on site notices so as to exclude personal data.

“They have issued this advisory note because AIFC made a general complaint. I believe that if any individual makes the same complaint then [the Department] would take even more definite action and immediately withdraw the requirement.”

The DPC ruling has been welcomed by forestry stakeholders.

“Obviously the DPC has been in dialogue with the Department for past few months and the minister is aware of the breach of the legislation,” said a spokesperson for one of the forestry companies.

“The minister could end this now but is still compelling farmers and other forest owners to display private information on felling site notices,” the spokesperson concluded.