Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 July 2022
344. Deputy Michael Creed asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the assistance available to forestry owners who have been impacted by ash dieback; the number of applicants who are availing of this initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36366/22]
View answerSince the first finding of ash dieback disease in Ireland, the Department has provided support totalling over €7 million to owners of ash plantations impacted by disease through the Reconstitution Scheme (Ash Dieback) (introduced in 2013) and more recently the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS – Ash dieback) introduced in July 2020.
My Department has received 723 RUS applications in total and 238 have been approved to date.
As the Deputy may be aware, 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 policy and strategy (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). However, the 2022 Plan does not include an annual target as 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.
We have had successful engagement with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in relation to this requirement for planning permission. From those discussions we expect that legislation to remove the requirement for planning permission in all cases under 10 hectares will be introduced after the Summer recess.
