Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 September 2021
769. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of applications to the reconstitution and underplanting scheme; the number of those applications which were successful, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43444/21]
View answer817. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the person or body responsible for ensuring that invasive diseases affecting forestry were not imported to Ireland at the time and prior to the first occurrence of ash dieback in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44078/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 769 and 817 together.
Most trees planted in Irish forests are home grown trees. We are generally self-sufficient and a net exporter of forestry trees. Occasionally when there is a shortage of specific tree species at the end of a planting season trees are imported. DAFM guidance is clear though – forestry owners are strongly encouraged to use trees of Irish provenance when planting.
The ash trees were not inspected by the Department on arrival as there are no import controls within the EU. It is a single market. All goods, including plants are not therefore generally checked on arrival into Ireland from other EU member states.
Under European Plant Health legislation (The Plant Health Regulation 2016/2031) there are rules around the movement of plants and plant products within the EU. At the time of the first finding of Ash dieback into Ireland the disease, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus , was not and is still not a regulated disease within the EU.
Ireland and the UK, in fact, were the first countries to introduce emergency national legislation to restrict imports of ash plants from other Member States.
In order to justify the continuation of such legislative restrictions, which otherwise may be deemed by the European Commission to be unjustified and deemed to be introducing barriers to the free movement of goods (plants and plant products) within the internal market, authorities in both Ireland and the UK (which has near comparable legislative restrictions) had to produce a Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) report which reflected the current status of the pathogen from surveillance in their respective territories.
The Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) (Ash Dieback) was announced on the 10th June 2020 and applications could be submitted from the 22nd June 2020.
In July, as the Scheme had been in operation for a year, it was time to assess the response to the Scheme. One question that had arisen was the availability of management options for plantations greater than 25 years of age.
After careful consideration these management options were revised as set out in Circular 12/2021 of 23rd July 2021, which was published on my Department’s pages on the Government of Ireland website, gov.ie. All ash plantations that exceed 7m top height with a medium level of stem infection are now eligible for under-planting and with high level stem infection are eligible for reconstitution. This change brings sites over 25 year of age into the Scheme.
To date, the Department has received 377 applications for RUS for 1,499ha, of which 115 have been approved for 405ha. A county breakdown is shown in the table below.
|
County |
Applications |
Approved |
|
Carlow |
6 |
2 |
|
Cavan |
14 |
7 |
|
Clare |
30 |
2 |
|
Cork |
34 |
8 |
|
Donegal |
1 |
0 |
|
Dublin |
1 |
0 |
|
Galway |
25 |
12 |
|
Kerry |
14 |
3 |
|
Kildare |
7 |
0 |
|
Kilkenny |
20 |
8 |
|
Laois |
11 |
4 |
|
Leitrim |
4 |
0 |
|
Limerick |
21 |
0 |
|
Longford |
13 |
7 |
|
Louth |
2 |
0 |
|
Mayo |
28 |
2 |
|
Meath |
18 |
0 |
|
Monaghan |
7 |
7 |
|
Offaly |
15 |
10 |
|
Roscommon |
4 |
0 |
|
Sligo |
2 |
0 |
|
Tipperary |
39 |
13 |
|
Waterford |
11 |
4 |
|
Westmeath |
23 |
8 |
|
Wexford |
18 |
12 |
|
Wicklow |
9 |
6 |
|
Total |
377 |
115 |
