Government pledges to meet forestry targets next year

The Government will issue enough forestry licences next year to meet its target of planting 8,000 hectares of new woodland annually, Minister of State, Senator Pippa Hackett has pledged.

Ms Hackett and her department, Agriculture, Food and the Marine, are under fire over licensing delays that the industry says have left new planting rates trailing the Government’s target.

Publishing the department’s 2024 forestry plan, Ms Hackett pledged that it would issue enough licences to ensure that the State meets its annual target next year.

She estimated that officials would issue 4,200 licences in 2024. Under Irish law, permits are needed to plant or fell trees, and to build roads to transport timber.

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Ms Hackett said her department was focused on maximising afforestation rates – that is new tree planting – and managing existing forests to meet the Government’s climate plan targets.

She pointed out that since the Government began its new €1.3 billion 2023-2027 forestry programme in September, the department had issued licences to plant 593 hectares.

Additionally, it has processed 92 applications made under the old scheme, but which opted into the new programme, bringing the total area likely to be planted to 1,401 hectares.

“This is the best-funded, most environmentally friendly forestry programme in the history of the State, and I would encourage all farmers and landowners to look at the range of forestry options available to them,” Ms Hackett said.

The department says that it was unable to issue afforestation licences for much of this year as it was waiting for EU officials to approve the State aid available.

Earlier this year, Forest Industries Ireland criticised the department for the time officials took to apply for EU approval for the programme, which the Government announced in September 2022.

The new programme boosts grants to landowners for planting trees and extends the duration of cash supports.