About 80 per cent of the Republic’s timber harvesting machinery is working on forests hit by Storm Éowyn, but one industry group says work on the clear-up is not moving fast enough.
Forestry was one of the worst hit industries when the record-breaking storm struck in January.
The winds floored 26,000 hectares, almost three years’ harvest, of mostly mature trees, sparking calls for measures to collect and sell the timber.
More than 80 per cent of timber-harvesting machinery here is now working on storm-hit forests, according to a spokesman for Michael Healy-Rae, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture.
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Paddy Bruton, of industry group Social Economic and Environmental Forestry Association, and Mark McCauley, director of Ibec affiliate Forest Industries Ireland, which represents growers and sawmills, both confirmed this figure.
However, Derek McCabe, chairman of industry group Irish Forest Owners, estimated that just 2 per cent of storm-felled timber had been recovered by last week.
He acknowledged that most machines were engaged on sites hit by the storm, but maintained that they were harvesting standing trees as well as those knocked over by the storm.
“There’s up to €800 million of our timber on the ground, that’s a huge loss to the country and to the economy,” he said.
His group represents private forest owners, many of whom originally planted trees on their properties several decades ago.
However, the Minister’s spokesman and Mr Bruton said that Mr McCabe’s “maths simply do not add up”.
Mr Bruton noted that his business, Euroforest Ireland, alone had recovered about 2 per cent of the timber knocked over by Storm Éowyn.
Mr Healy-Rae’s spokesman pointed out that the Minister had streamlined licensing regulations to speed up collection.
Along with that he prioritised certification that would allow timber to be exported, including to markets not previously tapped by the Irish industry.
The Minister established an industry taskforce soon after the storm whose members include representatives of Irish Forestry Owners.
State company Coillte owns 14,500 hectares of the 26,000 that Storm Éowyn damaged. The rest belongs to private landowners, including those represented by Mr McCabe.
Coillte said it had made “significant progress” in recovering its storm-damaged forests.
The company has about 18 months to two years to salvage windblown timber.
“Coillte is on target to have all windblown forests recovered by end 2026 and replanted by 2027,” it said.
The State company cautioned that there was a shortage of drivers to transport the harvested timber, but added it was working on tackling this.
