Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 April 2022
1929. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the dates officials of his Department contacted the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage or met with officials of the Department in connection with removing the requirement for planning permission when converting dead, dying and rotting ash plantations to conifer species; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21044/22]
View answerSince the first finding of ash dieback disease in Ireland, my Department has provided support totalling over €7 million to owners of ash plantations impacted by ash dieback disease through the ash dieback reconstitution scheme (introduced in 2013) and more recently the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS – Ash dieback) introduced in July 2020.
Applications for that RUS are received regularly, and decisions are issued as the assessment of the applications are complete
The Forestry Licensing Plan 2022 was published earlier this year and deals with projected licensing output and approvals for support schemes and may be found here gov.ie - Forestry Licensing Plan 2022 (www.gov.ie). A key target of the plan is to refocus on the delivery on approvals from the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) (Ash Dieback).
Many RUS applications are screened in for Appropriate Assessment and are referred to ecology. Of these, any that propose replacing the ash crop with conifer species currently require planning permission.
My Department is continuing to engage with the Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH), with the objective of removing the planning permission requirement for these cases.
Contact was initiated with DHLGH by my officials on 14 September 2021. Most recently a positive meeting was held with officials from both Departments on 4th April 2022 and there has been follow up contact between officials since around draft legislation on the matter.
