Ireland is falling “significantly” short of its targets for afforestation, according to a new report.

The report found that the 800,000ha hectares of forests in Ireland, which represents 11.6% of the total area of the state, is “well below the EU average afforestation rate of 38.3%”.

Ireland's forestry sector is managed by the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

The department's forest strategy implementation plan has a target to increase the amount of land afforested from 11.6% in 2023 to “18% cover in the long term and beyond 2030”.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), as part of its report on public services for 2025, stated: “To achieve this level of forest cover by (say) 2050, additional planting of 16,000 hectares a year would have to be achieved.”

50 years

According to the report: “The department’s current target for net additional planting is 8,000 hectares, at which rate it would take at least 50 years to reach the department’s 18% ‘long-term’ target.”

The report found that the number of hectares planted annually has fallen “significantly short of the target”.

Although the target was exceeded marginally in 2015, each subsequent year saw a very substantial shortfall.

Despite a noticeable up-tick in the level of planting in 2025, a shortfall of 68% of target was recorded (2,527ha planted vs. 8,000ha).

Spend

Over the period 2015 to 2025, DAFM spent approximately €946 million on forestry schemes, with €82 million spent in 2025.

In 2025, nearly all funding (93%) was linked to afforestation, ash dieback reconstitution, or forest roads.

As most goals/interventions are concerned with the planting of new trees, afforestation schemes account for most of the programme expenditure (75%).

Because past programmes continue to pay landholders annual premiums, a significant portion of annual expenditure relates to carryover payments from past programmes.

In 2025, expenditure of €41.8 million (approximately 50% of the total spent) related to previous forestry programmes.

Climate Action Plan

DAFM stated that the 8,000ha target is an ambitious one" linked with targets included in the Climate Action Plan.

Before the end of each year, the forestry division submits spending proposals to DAFM’s finance division.

For 2026, the forestry division submitted spending proposals to the finance division based on three demand scenarios. The scenarios were based on afforestation levels of 3,000ha, 4,000ha, or 5,000ha in 2026.

The finance division gave funding in line with the expected demand level of 3,000ha .

This was based on analysis of expected planting year-on-year as well as the rate of applications received and area approved under the afforestation schemes.

Woodland Creation on Public Lands scheme

In 2020, the DAFM launched the Woodland Creation on Public Lands scheme.

The goal of the scheme is to encourage public bodies to establish new native forests on land they own and control.

The goal of using public lands to increase forest cover was included in the 2020 Programme for Government, which sought to “embark on an ambitious programme of afforestation on state-owned lands”.

However, the C&AG report found that actual planting has fallen far short of the department’s target of 150ha per annum.

From 2023 to 2025, the average planting was 12ha per annum.