The Department of Agriculture is refusing to budge on its insistence that forestry owners will require felling licences to clear plantations devastated by storms Darragh and Éowyn.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that the issue of felling licences was raised once more at the latest meeting of the forest windblow taskforce on Tuesday 25 February, but no concessions were forthcoming on this point.

However, senior staff at the Department’s forestry service and the Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae pointed out that all efforts were being made to streamline the felling licence application process. They insisted again that windblow felling licence applications will get priority.

The Department admitted last week that almost 60,000ac of forestry was either flattened or severely damaged by the recent storms. The volume of timber knocked is estimated at 10m cubic metres, or more than double the total annual capacity of the country’s sawmills, which is put at 4.3m cubic metres.

The Department has claimed that more than half the plantation owners impacted by the storms have felling licences.

However, there is mounting pressure to offer some concessions to the hundreds of affected plantation owners who do not have felling licences.

Following Tuesday’s meeting, Minister Healy-Rae reaffirmed his commitment to supporting forest owners impacted by the storms.