A county councillor has called on the government to set up a taskforce to carry out work to remove ash trees affected by ash dieback along roadsides.
Independent councillor on Galway County Council Geraldine Donohue said that ash dieback is “now a major risk to human life, the general public, as well as landowners, emergency personnel, and local crew operatives”.
She called for a taskforce to be formed that would be given the necessary plant machinery and equipment to remove the trees.
“Continued calls for government funding are being ignored, [and] the buck continues to be passed from one body to another, year-after-year.”
Donohue claimed that her calls for funding to deal with the risk caused by “dead and dying” ash trees along roads “are largely dismissed”.
“Support and financial assistance are needed for farmers and homeowners to do the right thing. These very people are already financially stretched and unable to take on the highly dangerous task of cutting down a rotten roadside trees, which require professional training and specialist machinery,” Donohue said.
“Irish landowners, through no fault of their own, are being left in a precarious position. The government appears to be steadfast in its mindset that the problem lies with the landowner,” she added.
“Without any assistance, farmers and homeowners…are left with the decision of either attempting the highly dangerous task of cutting down a rotten roadside tree with no formal training or proper equipment, paying for the trees to be dealt with by professionals, or more often than not, leaving nature to take it’s course and hope for the best.”
The county councillor claimed that “any other major incident such as this” would receive government funding.
“It is obvious that a falling ash tree is a clear and real danger. If people are injured or killed, the government will be forced to react. It’s time now to be proactive and tackle the problem,” Donohue said.
Ash dieback strategy
The government has also been recently called on to publish its ash dieback strategy “immediately”.
Minister of State with responsibility for land use Pippa Hackett previously stated that a comprehensive implementation plan for ash dieback would be brought before Cabinet for approval in December.
Sinn Féin spokesperson for agriculture Claire Kerrane said that this did not happen and no further updates have been provided since then.
“The minister has repeatedly provided assurances that a detailed action plan is being prepared to deal with the issue of ash dieback and that this would be presented to cabinet very soon,” the Roscommon–Galway TD said.
“Yet, the weeks and months continue to pass, the issue of ash dieback continues to worsen, and we still do not have sight of a strategy,” Kerrane added.