^{Ash dieback should be treated as'national emergency' - report}

 Tuesday, 3 Oct 2023

A new report into the handling of ash dieback diseaseby the State has called for the disease to be treated as a national emergency,with a taskforce to be set up to clear infected trees and re-establishplantations.

The report, commissioned by Minister of State forForestry Pippa Hackett, and published following today's Cabinet meeting, saysit should be made clear to tree owners that the cost of site clearance andreplanting should be borne by the State, while they retain any residual valuefrom the trees.

It also recommends an ex-gratia payment should beconsidered for plantation owners in recognition of the absence of an effectiveState ash dieback scheme between 2018 and 2023, as well as a bespoke ashdie-back re-establishment annual payment.

*view image of trees infected with fungal disease

The report states ash dieback has impacted very severely on landowners whoavailed of grant-aided planting of ash over the past 35 years, causing veryreal anguish for owners, their families and the industry.

It also states there is an acceptance that the diseaseis irreversible at this point and that the action required is the urgentclearance of the diseased woodland and agreed decisions on the future use ofthe lands.

The Department of Agriculture is now due to draw up animplementation plan based on the report's recommendations which will then go toGovernment for approval in a few weeks.

Minister Hackett said that ash dieback has caused a lot of painand stress for farmers. She said the recommendations in today's report, whichshe commissioned last June, will be acted on.

"However there are three recommendations whichwill require further analysis within the parameters of the EU state aid rules,and when that work is done... in the next couple of weeks we will have a finalimplementation plan and I will be bringing that to my Government colleagues forapproval," she added.

The report says there was clear evidence that Ireland was activelyseeking ways to tighten up regulations on the free movement of ash plants priorto the detection of the ash dieback disease in 2012.

Both Ireland and the UK introduced emergency national legislativemeasures, only to be directed by the EU Commission that these measures were inbreach of the EU Plant Directive and should be revoked.

The authors say there seems to have been no recognition at EUlevel that the island geography of both Ireland and the UK, combined with theeconomic and cultural importance of ash as a native hardwood, required specialmeasures to be adopted to try to prevent the entry of the disease onto bothislands from mainland Europe.

However, they also state that even if additional measures beenintroduced, given the wind-borne nature of the disease, its high transmissibility,and the widespread distribution of ash trees across the island, it seems likelyit would have established here at some point anyway.

Reacting to the report, Simon White of Limerick and TipperaryWoodland Owners, said everything they had put forward as solutions to the ashdieback situation has been accepted.

"People with ash dieback are potentially in a much betterposition now as the need to help them is recognised in this report. We welcomethe report and we await the implementation plan."

To view full article, pleas visit RTE news at Ashdieback should be treated as 'emergency' - report (rte.ie)

By Joe Mag Raollaigh

Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Correspondent

To find out more, please contact us.

www.EuroforestIreland.ie           www.Ashdieback.ie                        www.ForestryServices.ie

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