43 forestry licences granted last week by DAFM
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued a total of 43 forestry licences last week, including nine for afforestation.
This is an increase on the 32 forestry licences issued by department officials during the previous week.
The latest forestry dashboard, published by the department, shows that 18 of the licences issued last week were for private felling and four were for Coillte felling.
Up to April 25, DAFM had issued a total of 284 private felling licences and 110 Coillte felling licences for a total of 4,920ha.
There were 12 licences issued for forestry roads last week, bringing the total for 2025 to 185 relating to 65km. The latest data shows that 37km of roads have been constructed this year.
The DAFM has now issued 172 afforestation licences in 2025 relating to 1,380ha. Some 111 valid applications have been received by the department.
A total of 749ha of forestry has been planted so far this year, with 122ha of that planted in April.
The department noted 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).
There have been 131 licences issued by the department so far this year for the Reconstitution of Ash Dieback Scheme, relating to 448ha.
76 licences have been approved for the NTAS (84ha), 22 for the Woodland Improvement Scheme (145ha) and 48 for the Deer Tree Shelter scheme (214ha).
Two licences have been issued for the Native Woodland Conservation Scheme this year for 17ha.
The Social, Economic, and Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA) voiced concern about the level of forestry licensing.
"For the second week running, forestry licensing numbers remain low across all categories.
"Only 43 licences were issued last week, including just 9 afforestation licences covering 96 hectares, just over 57 hectares short of the weekly target needed to achieve the annual goal of 8,000 hectares.
"Felling licences also continue to fall significantly short of pre-2024 levels, while road licensing results remain modest.
"Despite this, April as a whole is still one of the strongest months for forestry licensing in recent years.
"While this improvement is encouraging, we hope the poor performance of the past two weeks becomes an exception rather than a return to previous norms," it said.
