An Independent TD has claimed that the failure of the government to bring forward “pragmatic solutions” to the ash dieback crisis is a “monumental own goal”.
Carol Nolan said the approach taken by the government to the issue “typifies the bureaucratic malaise afflicting Irish forestry” and “should be seen as a source of major departmental and political embarrassment”.
The Laois-Offaly TD’s comments follow the Ash Dieback 2023 conference which recently took place in Semple Stadium in Co. Tipperary.
The event, organised by the Limerick and Tipperary Woodland Owners (LTWO) group, heard much anger and frustration over the plight of plantation owners dealing with the disease which was first detected in the Republic of Ireland in October 2012.
Ash Dieback
Deputy Nolan said that it is “actually almost impossible” to understand how or why successive government “have allowed this crisis to go on for so long”.
The TD said she had recently come across an Oireachtas debate on ash dieback from November 2012 where the Dáil was reassured that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) was “doing everything it possibly could to address the crisis”.
“Yet here we are more than a decade later and farmers and foresters are still being left to contend against the bureaucratic nightmare that will not even allow for the clearing and felling of dead and dying trees without a licence.”
“The Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity Pippa Hackett is just the latest in a long line of ministers who make grand claims about what they are doing and how they are going to assist farmers; but the reality remains that nothing is happening to assist them,” Nolan claimed.
“I am no longer surprised when I hear farmer after farmer tell me that they would not advise anyone to go into forestry.
“That is a shame, but it also an indictment of the political lethargy that has allowed this issue to go on year after year,” the TD said.
Forestry
According to the DAFM, the department has provided over €7 million in support to owners of plantations impacted by ash dieback since 2012.
This was through the ash dieback reconstitution scheme, which was introduced in 2013, and the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) launched in July 2020.
978 applications were made to the department under RUS between July 2020 and December 31, 2022. 390 applications were approved and 587 are still on hand covering over 2,500ha which are at various stages of the approvals process.
As DAFM cannot accept RUS applications until the new Forestry Programme is approved by the EU, an interim scheme was recently introduced.
This scheme is being offered to applicants who had technical approval for RUS on December 31, 2022 but had not commenced reconstitution work and do not wish to wait until the launch of the new Forestry Programme.
The scheme includes an enhanced site clearance grant rate.
To date, six applications have been received for 30ha under the interim scheme.