Environmental Indicators Ireland 2016

• Grassland accounted for between 61% and 62% of total land use in Ireland between 1990 and 2014. The area under forest increased from 7% in 1990 to 11% in 2014. Land under settlement was 2% in 2014.

• From 1922 to 1989, afforestation in Ireland was predominantly carried out by the public sector. Since then, private afforestation has dominated, and since 1999, has accounted for over 90% of annual afforestation. In 2015 almost 100% of afforestation was carried out by the private sector.

• Since 1922 665,000 hectares of land have been afforested in Ireland.

• Forestry accounted for 10.9% of Ireland’s total land area in 2015. In contrast, 35.5% of the total land area in the EU in 2015 was under forest cover. Ireland ranked second lowest among EU member states in terms of the proportion of land area under forest cover.

• Some 377,000 hectares of public forestry were planted since records began. Planting peaked in the decade 1990-1999 at 105,000 hectares.
• A total of 10,000 hectares or 2.7% of public forest land is currently either unstocked or being restocked.

• The amount of organic agricultural land in Ireland has increased by almost 180% between 1997 and 2014, when it accounted for 53,000 hectares.

• Land used for organic farming in Ireland accounted for 1.2% of total agricultural land in 2013 – the second lowest percentage of agricultural land given over to organic farming in the EU. Austria, with 19.3% had the highest percentage of agricultural land farmed organically in the EU in 2013.

• Sales of nitrogen and phosphorous fertiliser in Ireland increased from 315,000 tonnes in 1980 to 491,000 tonnes in 1995. Sales then fell between 1995 and 2009, when 327,000 tonnes were sold. Since 2009 sales fluctuated between 324,000 and 392,000 tonnes and were 368,000 tonnes in 2015.

• Ireland had the 7^th highest consumption of fertilisers of EU Member States where data were available in 2013, at 94.7 tonnes per 1,000 hectares of agricultural land. The highest consumption in the EU was the Netherlands at 136.7 tonnes per 1,000 hectares of agricultural land.

• Cattle numbers in Ireland fluctuated between 6.5 million and 7 million over the 1980-2015 period. In 2015 the total number was nearly 7 million. Sheep numbers have fluctuated more widely. In 1980 there were 3.3 million sheep in Ireland. The number peaked in 2000 at 7.6 million and in 2015 there were 5.1 million sheep in the country. Pig numbers increased from 1 million in 1980 to a peak of 1.8 million in 2002 before stabilising at around 1.5 million animals in subsequent years.

• In December 2015, Ireland had 7.2% of the total cattle population of the EU and 1% of the total pig population.

• Total dwelling completions in Ireland increased from 13,900 in 1970 to 93,400 in 2006, before falling sharply to 8,300 in 2013. Total dwelling completions rose in 2014 to 11,000.

• The percentage of dwelling completions by Local Authorities fell from 27% in 1970 to just 1% in 2014. The percentage of Voluntary and Cooperative dwelling completions rose from 0% in 1970 to peak at 8% in 2012. In 2014 3% of all dwelling completions were in this sector.

• Private sector dwelling completions increased from 73% in 1970 to 94% in 2006 – the peak year for dwelling completions. This declined to 80% in 2009 before rising again to 95% in 2014.

• Ireland and Spain had the highest levels of dwelling completions per 1,000 population in the European Union over the period 2006-2015, despite both countries showing large falls since 2006.
• In 2006-2015 , there were 72.1 house completions per 1,000 population in Ireland.

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