The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has released a detailed breakdown of the total area of ash plantations per county that have been grant-aided through DAFM forestry schemes. According to the DAFM’s action plan on ash dieback, there are 6,500 individual owners of ash plantations that were established under state-funded schemes between 1990 and 2013. The DAFM has acknowledged that it is likely that most ash plantations will be impacted by ash dieback, a disease first detected in Ireland in 2012, now prevalent in every county.
A total of €10 million has been allocated thus far towards addressing ash dieback, with interventions carried out on 1,700 hectares, as outlined in the recently published DAFM action plan. Co. Tipperary boasts the largest area of ash trees, totaling 2,378 hectares, constituting 14.96% of the county’s total forest area supported by a DAFM scheme.
The breakdown of the percentage and size of grant-aided ash plantations by county is as follows:
– Carlow: 0.56% of total grant-aided ash forests, 89 hectares
– Cavan: 2.83%, 450 hectares
– Clare: 7.83%, 1,245 hectares
– Cork: 11.92%, 1,895 hectares
– Donegal: 1.32%, 210 hectares
– Dublin: 0.33%, 52 hectares
– Galway: 4.53%, 720 hectares
– Kerry: 4.85%, 771 hectares
– Kildare: 2.89%, 459 hectares
– Kilkenny: 4.37%, 695 hectares
– Laois: 2.97%, 472 hectares
– Leitrim: 1.86%, 296 hectares
– Limerick: 6.56%, 1,043 hectares
– Longford: 2.24%, 356 hectares
– Louth: 0.29%, 46 hectares
– Mayo: 4.27%, 679 hectares
– Meath: 4.39%, 698 hectares
– Monaghan: 0.56%, 89 hectares
– Offaly: 3.69%, 587 hectares
– Roscommon: 1.61%, 256 hectares
– Sligo: 1.29%, 205 hectares
– Tipperary: 14.96%, 2,378 hectares
– Waterford: 3.35%, 533 hectares
– Westmeath: 5.88%, 935 hectares
– Wexford: 2.82%, 448 hectares
– Wicklow: 1.83%, 291 hectares
The most recent available National Forest Inventory data for 2022 estimated Ireland’s forest area to be 808,848 hectares, accounting for 11.6% of the land area excluding inland water bodies. Cork leads with 92,471 hectares of forest cover, representing 12.4% of the county’s land area, followed by Galway at 63,795 hectares with a forest cover of 10.4%. Notably, Leitrim boasts the highest forest cover at 20.1% with 32,039 hectares, followed by Wicklow at 18.5% forest cover and 37,470 hectares.
Broadleaf forests now make up nearly one third of Ireland’s forest estate, standing at 30.6%, marking a 5.9% increase between 2006 and 2022. Conifer species, on the other hand, account for 69.4% of the forest cover in the country.
