Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) Michael Healy-Rae said that a satellite imagery assessment of the damage caused to forestry by recent storms will be completed shortly.

He said that this critical piece of work will give an accurate picture of the scale of damage, which does appear to be significantly greater than that of Storm Darwin.

Minister Healy-Rae previously told Agriland at least 5,000ha of forestry across the country has been destroyed by Storm Éowyn.

The second meeting of the Forest Windblow Taskforce took place yesterday afternoon in Backweston, Co. Kildare, following its first engagement last week.

Minister of State for Forestry Michael Healy-Rae noted the importance of having a saw mill representative at the table and welcomed the Irish Timber Council to the taskforce.

The group also includes representatives from Forest Industries Ireland (FII), Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA), Teagasc, Coillte, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), the Irish Forest Owners (IFO) and SEEFA.

The taskforce was updated on early figures that have come back from some private forestry companies indicating that more than 50% of forests that have been damaged have a felling licence.

“While it is important that we look at all options to deal with expediting the licensing process it is clear that there is an area of windblown forests already covered by a felling licence and it is important now that, in as far as possible, the harvesting capacity is mobilised into these areas," the minister said.

Minister Healy-Rae, who also has responsibility for farm safety, added that it "cannot be stated enough times that windblown forestry sites are extremely dangerous places".

"Forest owners should put safety first and not attempt to tackle this work themselves with chainsaws.

"Trees windblown can be under all sorts of tension and using large harvesting machines is the only safe way of getting this timber out," he said.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) also issued two circulars this week.

The first department circular outlines directions on how to assess damage to forests, using freely available satellite imagery.

The second contains details to registered foresters on how to submit applications for felling and road licences in areas affected by wind damage.

Following the recent storms, the department said it expects a significant increase in licence applications to be submitted for both forest roads and clearfell over the coming months.

Under the Forestry Act 2014, windblown trees require a felling licence, as they will still need to be cut, harvested and removed.

"We are committed to making the application process as efficient and as fast as possible for forest owners, and in parallel we are exploring further options for a simplified approach, taking account of all EU environmental obligations," DAFM said.

The department is now expediting the processing of windblow-related licence applications to minimise losses in timber value.

It will introduce a number of changes to its workflow and systems, will redeploy staff and prioritise windblow-related applications.

All such applications submitted on or before the August 31, 2025 will be prioritised.

The department will also prioritise any clearfell or road licence applications already in the system which have yet to be licenced, and which have been impacted by Storms Darragh and/or Éowyn.

The Forest Windblow Taskforce is due to meet again next week.