Start here: tree work in Ireland

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. This page is a map for tree work in Ireland. It names the official body for each question and points to the longer pages on this site. Official page details are as of October 8, 2026.

Who sets the safety rules

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) is the workplace safety regulator. Its agriculture and forestry section has a forestry area, and the HSA publishes ten guides for forestry work with titles such as felling and manual takedown, chainsaw snedding and chainsaw clearance of windblow. The HSA's forestry code of practice page says the current Code of Practice for Managing Safety and Health in Forestry Operations came into operation on May 1, 2023 and replaced the 2009 code. It says the revised code points to the HSA's own guides in place of several UK advisory group documents.

In a press release of September 7, 2025, the HSA announced a nationwide forestry inspection campaign starting on September 8. It named risk assessments, safety statements, training of machinery operators and contractors, and correct use of protective equipment as focus areas. The same release quotes an HSA senior inspector saying that anyone in the sector, from timber grower to subcontractor, has a legal duty to make sure no one is put at risk. For rules in the other four countries see safety rules by country.

Chainsaw training and what employers ask for

The HSA's Guidance on Safe Use of Chainsaws, published in 2022, says that to fell a tree with a chainsaw a person must have completed an accredited chainsaw training course suitable for the work, and that the courses should meet the standards laid down by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI). It lists course types: novice, farmers, tree surgeon, forestry professional, arboriculturist and horticulturist. The guidance does not cite a statute for that sentence. What it is, how it differs by course and what else the HSA says about training is on the page for credentials in Ireland.

Routes in

Generation Apprenticeship, the national apprenticeship site, has an Arboriculture apprenticeship page. It describes a two-year apprenticeship that ends in a QQI Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Arboriculture, managed by Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board. It says an apprentice has to be hired by an employer and earns a salary during on-the-job and off-the-job training. Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, runs Level 5 and Level 6 forestry certificates at Ballyhaise College, and its forestry training page says forestry graduates have gone on to careers in arboriculture and tree care. The comparison of routes in all six countries is on routes into tree work.

The main association

The Arboricultural Association, a UK body, has an Ireland branch. Its branch page lists a chair, secretary and treasurer and branch news, including a national conference on urban greening and the All Ireland Tree Climbing Competition 2023. Its news item on the Knowledge Transfer system says the system was put in place by Galway and Roscommon ETB in January 2024 and runs 15 to 20 events a year. The chapters and branches guide covers branches in other places.

Felling trees in a forest

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's page on tree felling and management says that a licence is needed to cut down the trees in a forest, and gives protecting forests and sustainable forest management as the reason. It has a form for reporting alleged illegal tree felling and a booklet on managing roadside trees. The page speaks of forests. It does not say how the rule applies to a single garden tree, so the Forest Service is the office to ask.

Reporting a tree pest

For pests, see reporting a tree pest in Ireland for the office that takes reports.

More for Ireland

Every regulator and licence office in one list, in the Ireland directory of official bodies.
Tickets and certificates by their full names, in the tickets guide.
Apprenticeships in the other countries, in the apprenticeships guide.
ISA credentials step by step, in the ISA credentials guide.
Local groups, in the chapters and branches guide.