Irish-grown timber would become the first material considered in every publicly funded building under a seven-point roadmap that went to cabinet this week, with lead departments now tasked with examining recommendations spanning regulation, procurement, carbon policy and skills. That is according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which published the final report of the interdepartmental Timber in Construction Steering Group on Tuesday.
Established in November 2023 and drawing on members from 64 institutions and organisations, the steering group met 15 times over its two-year mandate before Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon brought its conclusions to government. The report groups its seven strategic recommendations into three pillars — Regulation and Standards, Procurement and Carbon Policy, and Innovation, Training and Adoption — each with a responsible lead and an implementation timeline running from June 2026.
At the centre of the procurement pillar sits a public Wood-First strategy, led by the Office of Public Works, which would require public bodies to consider timber and timber-based systems as the primary material for new buildings, extensions, and major refurbishments, unless a robust technical or economic case can be made otherwise. South Dublin County Council has already adopted its own Wood-First policy, and the report points to France and Scotland as jurisdictions where similar levers have moved timber into the construction mainstream.
Minister of State for Forestry Niall Collins said the recommendations emerged from two years of collaboration between government, academia and more than 60 industry stakeholders, with his department coordinating across the lead agencies charged with examining implementation.
“These recommendations form a roadmap towards safe regulation and increased use of timber,” Collins said.
On the regulatory side, the National Standards Authority of Ireland is asked to develop the country’s first National Technical Specification for mass-engineered timber, covering fire safety, durability, moisture, acoustics, and structural performance across products, including cross-laminated timber and glulam. Whilst that specification is developed, a centralised panel of specialist advisors — backed by around €190,000 in government funding — would support building control authorities and fire officers assessing mass timber projects against the Building Regulations.
The carbon recommendations would see Ireland move ahead of EU requirements, with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to publish a roadmap for life-cycle global warming potential limits by January 2027, and mandatory carbon intensity targets applying to all new buildings from 2030. Since September 2025, all Irish public bodies have been required to conduct whole-life carbon assessments for directly procured construction projects, and the report calls for those requirements to be tightened further from this month.
Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said the work sets out policy opportunities to drive a step change in timber use, deliver housing through modern methods of construction and reduce the environmental impact of building.
“It is a credible policy roadmap to unlock value-added in our timber sector,” Burke said.
The remaining recommendations cover a new industry-led Timber Knowledge Development and Innovation Facility, to be established by Enterprise Ireland with the departments of enterprise and agriculture as co-leads, alongside the integration of timber as a core component of architecture and engineering curricula and targeted incentives — including potential grants, tax reliefs or viability-gap supports — for mass engineered timber projects. An academic survey conducted for the group found that fewer than 50 per cent of Irish lecturers had engaged with industry bodies on engineered timber, and that engineering courses were still weighted heavily towards concrete and steel.
The stakes extend well beyond the construction sector, with Ireland targeting more than 300,000 new homes by 2030, whilst roundwood production is forecast to climb from 5 million cubic metres to almost 7.8 million by 2035. Ireland’s forests cover 11.6 per cent of the land area, supported by more than €3 billion in state and EU investment since the 1980s and a further €1.3 billion committed to the 2023–2027 Forestry Programme, with the national Forest Strategy envisaging Irish-grown timber as the primary material for new homes by 2050.
Steering group chair Professor J Owen Lewis, who oversaw the five thematic groups behind the report’s 46 total recommendations, said the collaboration reflected a shared understanding that housing delivery and climate action could be achieved together through timber.
“The task now is to achieve sustained leadership, policy support and industry commitment,” Lewis said.
For Lewis and the 64 organisations behind the report, the destination is fixed: a construction sector where timber frame matches Scotland’s 90 per cent share of scheme housing, and where the 7.8 million cubic metres of Irish roundwood forecast by 2035 is built into Irish homes rather than shipped offshore.
