The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued 19 afforestation licences covering 220ha last week.

This compares to seven licences issued in the previous week, while in the first week of March just three afforestation licences were granted.

The Social, Economic, and Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA) said that last week had set "a new bar for the issuance of afforestation licenses".

"This surprising performance comes after months of consistently poor results and shows that demand and capacity exist, but consistency is lacking.

"This is the single best performance in years and must serve as a benchmark against future results," the SEEFA said.

The DAFM has issued 130 afforestation licences in 2025 relating to 1,025ha forestry, with 91 valid applications received.

A total of 627ha of forestry has been planted so far this year, with over half (364ha) planted in March.

The latest forestry figures from DAFM note that the figures for afforestation planted in 2025 reflect afforestation that has been paid at first grant stage this year to date only, including the Native Area Tree Scheme (NTAS).

In 2024, 1,573ha of forestry was planted, down from 1,652ha in the previous year. The government has set an annual target of 8,000ha of new forestry in order to meet climate targets.

Last week, the department issued 16 private felling and 11 Coillte felling licences.

In the previous week, 10 private felling licences were issued and none for Coillte.

There were three licences issued for forest roads, compared with nine in the previous week.

Up to March 28, DAFM had issued a total of 187 private felling licences and 92 Coillte felling licences for a total of 3,529ha.

The department has received 213 private felling licence and 173 Coillte felling licence applications so far this year.

A total of 118 licences have been issued for 43km of forestry roads - the data shows that 33km of roads have been constructed so far in 2025.

There have been 85 licences issued by the department so far this year for the Reconstitution of Ash Dieback Scheme, relating to 312ha.

50 licences have been approved for the NTAS (56ha), 17 for the Woodland Improvement Scheme (109ha) and 24 for the Deer Tree Shelter scheme (112ha).

One licence has been issued for the Native Woodland Conservation Scheme this year for 5ha.