Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 2 December 2020
198. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the consideration that has been given to altering existing or introducing new supports with regard to ash dieback including broadening the base of eligible applicants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40687/20]
View answer199. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the monitoring his Department carries out with regard to the prevalence and effects of ash dieback; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40688/20]
View answer200. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of his Departments attempts to ensure that the ash species is maintained and restored as a result of the effects of ash dieback; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40689/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 198 to 200, inclusive, together.
The national response to Ash Dieback has moved away from eradication of the disease in light of experience and scientific evidence that such an approach is no longer feasible. The Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) launched in June this year focuses on ash plantation management. This approach categorises plantations in to three groups based on the plantation age and tree size. Different support options are available, depending on the category into which the ash plantation may fall.
The objectives of the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) are to encourage the active management of ash plantations in the context of the control and spread of the disease. The scheme aims to promote the vigorous growth of ash through thinning to realise as much potential value of the crop as possible and where appropriate in young plantations and in cases of high disease infection, to support the removal of the affected ash crop and replacement with alternative species.
Depending on the age and tree size of the ash plantation, the reconstitution option allows for the entire site to be cleared and replanted with an alternative species. Support available for this option covers the cost of establishment and includes a site clearance grant. The underplanting option is also available where a percentage of the crop is retained while the remainder is cleared to make way for planting a new crop of trees. The Woodland Improvement Scheme may also be an option for some forest owners impacted by ash dieback. This scheme supports two thinning interventions. Transitioning to Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) is also available which consists of three separate interventions.
My Department has received around 200 applications and there are no plans to amend it or to introduce additional supports.
As regards the background to the assessment and monitoring of the disease, following the first confirmed finding of Ash Dieback disease in October 2012, on imported trees used in forestry plantations, intensive surveys for the disease have been conducted year on year since. The surveys conducted in 2019 included a targeted survey of forestry plantations and a systematic survey of National Forest Inventory points across the country.
By the end of 2019, there had been findings in ash in over 650 locations in various settings – forests, nurseries and garden centres, on farm planting, roadside planting, hedgerows and private gardens in all 26 counties. In 2019, due to the wide distribution of Chalara Ash Dieback Disease reports of the disease from the general public in non-grant aided ash trees, for example garden trees and hedgerow trees, were not routinely sampled for laboratory analysis and are not accounted for in the figure of 650. Systematic surveys for ash dieback have continued during 2020.
The Department is actively supporting a number of research projects into the control and management of Ash Dieback disease, in particular projects with a key long-term focus of developing an ash tree breeding programme to identify trees that show strong tolerance to the disease and the genetic basis for tolerance. In this regard, a five-year project was begun in 2013, the aim of which has been to identify individual trees of ash which show tolerance to Ash Dieback and to use them for possible future breeding work and DNA screening by other institutes.
The project, which was part funded by the Department, was carried out by Forest Research, an agency of the Forestry Commission in the UK. The project involves 48 hectares of trial plantings over fourteen sites in the east of England and the mass screening of some 155,000 ash trees with fifteen different provenances from continental Europe, the UK and Ireland. Over 14,000 Irish ash plants from two distinct seed lots were included in the trials. These trials continue to be monitored by Forest Research, while scion material showing early signs of tolerance has been repatriated back to Ireland and incorporated into the Teagasc research effort.
The Department continues to closely follow similar work in Europe. Teagasc has collaborated with a number of European research agencies and has acquired and propagated ash genotypes which have been selected as putatively tolerant to ash dieback disease, having been observed as healthy over several years in infected locations with high tree mortality.
In 2020, with support from this Department under the Forest Genetic Resources Reproductive Material: Seed Stand & Seed Orchard, a collaboration between Teagasc and Coillte resulted in the establishment of the first conservation collection of putatively tolerant ash plants at a forest site in Co. Kilkenny. This planting will be monitored over the coming years in order to assess how tolerance of each genotype holds up.
Also in 2020, officials in this Department contributed to a COFORD Connect Note on ash dieback disease. This note provides a comprehensive background on the state of the disease in Ireland, and a strategy for generating sources of tolerant ash seeds and plants, and for mobilising this material for field planting. This note can be found at http://www.coford.ie/media/coford/content/publications/cofordconnects/CCNRM22BreedintoleranceAshDiebackDisease160620.pdf
