DAFM says Coillte not favoured for felling licences

How  Government's annual 8,000 hectares afforestation  target can be achieved

Aldi Group MD Niall O’Connor, left, with Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue and  Minister of State Pippa Hackett: Aldi Ireland will plant one million native Irish trees by 2025, in a partnership with the Department of Agriculture’s Woodland Environment Fund. 

Tree felling licences issued last year included 2.7 million cubic metres for Coillte and 2.3 million cubic metres for private forest owners, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

“It is a 52% to 48% breakdown, not the divide that people assume,” said Colm Hayes, the department’s assistant secretary with responsibility for forestry.