An area of almost 100ha has been planted so far this month, however no new afforestation licences have been issued by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
So far this month, however, the DAFM issued 31 road licences, 62 private felling licences, and 104 Coillte felling licences, the latest Forestry Licensing Dashboard shows.
An area of 97ha has been planted this month up until Friday, September 22, which leads to a total of 1,324ha of new afforestation planted so far this year, according to the DAFM.
Afforestation
These latest figures mean that the number of afforestation licences issued by the DAFM so far this year remains at 12 non-grant aided licences allowing for 170ha of new plantings.
The DAFM said that it was unable to issue grant-aided afforestation and road licences while it awaited full and final EU approval for the new Forestry Programme 2023-2027.
However, although the entire programme received final EU approval on September 6, and the new afforestation scheme opened for applications, no licences have been issued since.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue recently said he intends to publish a licensing plan imminently, which will encompass the remainder of 2023 and 2024.
Ash dieback
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that the government is currently considering a compensation package for ash dieback affected farmers and landowners.
He told the Dáil today (Wednesday, September 27), that while he can’t give certainty, the government will make a decision on the matter “sooner rather than later”.
“For a lot of people who invested in forestry, they were encouraged to do so by government given, government grants to do so and for a lot of them this would have been their pension potentially.
“And now it is no fault of their own they see that their crop has been destroyed and for similar crops in similar circumstances we would do a compensation package,” he said.
The Taoiseach made his comments in response to independent TD for Laois-Offaly, Carol Nolan, who raised the issue of an ash dieback compensation package.