Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 April 2015
340. Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if there has been any research carried out here into chalara fraxinea; the cost of this research; and the amount his Department spent on informing and educating growers, farmers and the general public of the disease. [15531/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThrough its 2014 call for research projects, my Department is supporting a project entitled “Assessing Ireland’s risk to airborne spread of ash dieback disease with “Lagrangian stochastic models”. The aim of this project, which commenced recently, is to develop a model that predicts the spatial risk of infection of Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus fungus (the infective agent of ash die-back disease, Chalara fraxinea). The Department has committed €67,091 to this project over a 12 month period. Research on disease resistance in ash is being undertaken by Forest Research, an agency of the British Forestry Commission; this work is being part funded by my Department. As part of this project, Irish ash plants have been planted out over a range of sites in the South East of England to test for resistance. So far the Department has contributed €14,000 towards the cost of this research. Further research is underway by Teagasc which is supported by my Department on disease resistance in ash. In 2014 Teagasc started a four year project with the aim of procuring individual trees of ash which show resistance/tolerance to Chalara. These trees will then be used to bulk up stocks of resistant trees, as well as for establishing seed producing orchards with resistant parent trees. This work is being funded from within the Department’s normal subvention to Teagasc. In terms of resources applied by my Department on informing and educating growers, farmers and the general public on Chalara, every opportunity has been taken to provide information on Ash dieback, not all of which incurred expenditure. The information measures undertaken included the provision of articles and photos for national publications, including a comprehensive article in October 2013. There was also a full page article on Ash Dieback, with photographs, in Issue No. 10 of the Forest Service News which issued in December 2012 to most forest owners in receipt of premium payments. There is also a dedicated webpage on Ash Dieback on my Department’s website which contains Press Releases and presentations about Chalara.
My Department contributes towards the annual programme of forestry promotional and advisory activities undertaken by the Forestry Development Department of Teagasc. As part of its activities in 2013, Teagasc organised, with support from my Department, 22 information meetings on Chalara which took place in late May 2013. Some 800 people attended and information was provided on what to look out for and the implications in terms of clearance of a forest plantation. Clarification was also given at these meetings on the implications for AEOS and REPS farmers where the disease is found on the trees planted under these schemes. My Department also arranged for the printing and distribution of posters showing the general public the symptoms that they should watch out for and whom they should notify about such symptoms. My Department also arranged for a full page advertisement about Chalara to appear in the programme for the All-Ireland Hurling Final in September 2013 and 2014.
It is very difficult to quantify exactly how much the Department itself spent on distributing information on Chalara as many of these activities were undertaken jointly as part of an existing budget allocation or in many other cases there were no direct costs charged to the Department.
