Navigating Ireland's €55 Million Replanting Grant: A Farmer's Guide

Introduction

Irish farmers are well used to battling the weather, but the storms of recent years pushed even the toughest to their limits. Across the country, winter gales snapped and flattened private forests that had taken decades to grow. Walking through a windblown plantation afterwards, you can almost feel the weight of it, the mess, the danger, the waste, and the simple heartbreak of seeing years of work lying on its side.

Now, finally, there’s something concrete on the table to help. The Government has confirmed a €55 million Replanting Grant Scheme aimed squarely at private forest owners who were hit by storm damage. For many farmers, this support will decide whether the damaged woodland is brought back into production or left in limbo for years.

What follows is a clear, plain-spoken guide to what the grant offers, how much farmers can realistically expect, and the steps involved in securing it, along with a few grounded reminders that can make the whole process far smoother.

Why This Grant Matters More Than Many Realise

The scale of the damage was unlike anything seen here in a long time. Thousands of hectares were either uprooted or snapped clean through, and roughly half of that area belonged to private owners.

And the truth is blunt: re-establishing a storm-damaged forest is not a simple clean-up job. It involves clearing unsafe timber, salvaging what you can at reduced value, preparing the ground again, buying plants, replanting, and then nursing the new trees through their vulnerable early years. All of this lands on top of ordinary farm pressures.

Forestry is still one of the most dependable long-term assets a farm can hold, but very few farmers have the spare cash to absorb the immediate cost of restoring a devastated site. This €55 million scheme isn’t just welcome, it’s essential if Ireland is to avoid losing a generation of productive woodland.

What the Grant Covers — and What Farmers Can Expect to Receive

This scheme pays per hectare, and the rate depends on what you’re replanting.

Here’s what the figures look like:

• Standard conifer replanting: about €3,800 per hectare.
• Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF): generally over €5,400 per hectare.
• Enhanced mixed or biodiversity-focused systems: up to roughly €6,700 per hectare.

That difference matters. A five-hectare patch of windblow, for example, could generate anything from €19,000 to €33,500 depending on how you choose to re-establish it. A twelve-hectare site could bring in between €45,600 and €80,400.

Payments come in two chunks:

• 75% upfront, which is when contractors, plants and ground-prep costs hit hardest.
• 25% about four years later, once the trees have taken hold and establishment is confirmed.

And there’s another piece of good news: many farmers moved quickly after the storms and started replanting themselves. Those early movers aren’t penalised, the grant can be applied retrospectively, as long as the paperwork backs it up.

How Farmers Can Actually Attain This Grant: The Step-by-Step Path

There’s nothing complicated here once you know the order of things, but timing and organisation do matter.

Step 1: Check that your site qualifies
A registered forester will walk the site and confirm the damage came from one of the designated storms, that the land is registered as forestry, and that replanting is genuinely required.

Step 2: Work through a registered forester
Farmers can’t submit the application themselves. A registered forester handles the whole process, mapping, drafting the plan, assembling documentation and submitting the application. Choose someone who understands your land and your long-term goals.

Step 3: Gather your paperwork early
Photos, maps, receipts, felling permissions, salvage invoices, anything that helps build a clear picture of what happened and what you’ve done since. If you already replanted, keep every receipt.

Step 4: Agree a replanting plan
This is your chance to rethink the forest design. Your forester will help with species selection, spacing, drainage, biodiversity features and ways to reduce future windthrow. This stage determines the forest you’ll have for the next few decades.

Step 5: Application submission (when the scheme opens)
Once the scheme opens in 2026, the forester submits everything to the Department.

Step 6: First payment — 75%
After approval, the majority payment lands, covering the real costs of establishment.

Step 7: Second payment — 25%
Around year four, if the forest is thriving, the remaining payment is released.

Practical Takeaways for the Ordinary Farmer

Most farmers who have walked through a windblown stand know that the hardest part isn’t the paperwork, it’s the sense of being thrown back to square one. But the process becomes far more manageable when a few simple principles are kept in mind.

Acting early really does help. Whether you're photographing the damage, getting a forester out, or tidying the site, early moves create fewer complications later. And if you’ve already replanted, you haven’t priced yourself out of the scheme, as long as you have the receipts and planting records, you remain eligible.

Documentation might feel like a nuisance, but it’s one of the strongest tools you have. Clear photos, marked-up maps and invoices don’t just keep the Department happy, they also make your forester’s job far easier.

When designing the new forest, think long-term rather than defaulting to the exact species that were there before. A more resilient layout, mixed species, and small drainage improvements can dramatically reduce the risk of future windthrow. And once the new trees are in, early maintenance makes or breaks the success of the crop. Most establishment failures happen because weeds were allowed to outrun the young trees, not because of storms, pests or anything dramatic.

The Bigger Picture: What This Means for Irish Farming

Although this scheme is aimed at restoring storm-damaged forests, its ripple effects stretch far wider. Replanting fuels work for rural contractors, nurseries, hauliers and sawmills, the kind of local services that keep communities alive. On the farm itself, a well-managed forest provides long-term financial stability, offers shelter for livestock, and brings real biodiversity benefits that are becoming more valuable every year.

Nationally, restoring these woodlands strengthens Ireland’s commitments on climate and soil protection. Forests that are properly re-established now will be absorbing carbon, safeguarding watercourses and supporting wildlife decades into the future. And perhaps most importantly, this scheme shifts the mindset around forestry. Instead of viewing storm-damaged woodland as a burden, it encourages farmers to see it as an asset worth rebuilding, one that can perform better and stand stronger than the forest that came before it.

Conclusion

The €55 million replanting grant isn’t a handout, it’s a genuine opportunity to rebuild better. With a good forester, solid documentation and a clear replanting plan, farmers can turn a damaged forest into a healthier, more resilient and more productive one. This is the moment to prepare, gather what you need, and put a plan in place so you’re ready the day the scheme opens.

If you want, I can now polish this into a website-ready layout, create a shorter social-media version, or design an info sheet farmers can download and use.

*By Anne Hayden MSc., Founder, The Informed Farmer Consultancy.