Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 November 2016
235. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress to date in dealing with ash dieback disease; the number of confirmed findings of this disease in each of the years 2012 to date in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35661/16]
View answerI would advise the Deputy that on the Department’s website there is a dedicated section on Ash Dieback disease. It gives a comprehensive account of all the work by my Department to date to try to curtail and eradicate the disease on a national basis and the findings from each of the targeted and systematic surveys undertaken from 2012 to 2016. The website also provides information on the Reconstitution Scheme (Chalara Ash Dieback) which is available to assist owners of forests planted under the Afforestation Scheme which have suffered from the disease to restore those forests, as well as information on research projects into the control and management of the disease, in particular projects to identify trees that show strong tolerance and or resistance to the disease. There is also a national distribution map and summary table of all confirmed findings up to the second quarter of 2016 (i.e. 30 June this year). This table and map will be updated with the figures for third quarter of 2016 in the coming days.
To summarise the current situation and to speak to the long term outlook, at this juncture it is important to note that notwithstanding the positive effects at local level of the eradication actions undertaken to date, both by affected landowners supported by the Reconstitution Scheme or directly by the Department itself, the annual systematic surveys and targeted surveys as well as follow up inspections by Department Inspectors have indicated year on year that there is a continuing rise in the number and geographic distribution of confirmed findings nationally. By June of this year, at a time when the targeted and systematic summer surveys were still underway, the initial results were already such as to confirm the presence to a greater or lesser extent of the disease in all 26 counties.
Another factor is that initially the findings were in imported ash trees. Later the disease was found in native hedgerows beside infected imported ash trees. The Department is now finding the disease in native hedgerows where there is no obvious introduced source of infection nearby. In addition over half the recent findings in forest plantations are in ash trees of native Irish origin. It is also worth noting that in Britain the disease has spread quickly and widely in the natural environment over the same time period.
As already noted, the Department is actively supporting a number of research projects into disease, in particular projects with a key long-term focus of developing an ash tree breeding programme to identify trees that show strong tolerance and or resistance to the disease and the genetic basis for tolerance. It is through such programmes that a long term strategy for ash can be identified and supported.
