Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 November 2022
759. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the attention of the forestry division within his Department has been drawn to reports that the devastating Ash dieback disease, chalara fraxinea, was present in Europe and moving westward towards Ireland in the years previous to its outbreak in Ireland in 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58737/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department was aware that this new disease of ash was present in other Members States and had carried out surveys for the disease before it was first found in Ireland.
Ash dieback disease caused by the organism Hymenoscyphus fraxineus was first found in Ireland in 2012 and is now widespread throughout the country and the rest of Europe. It is a wind-borne disease and airborne transmission from continental Europe has been attributed to its introduction into the southeast of Great Britain and to rapid spread throughout the natural range of ash in Europe. Airborne transmission has similarly resulted in its rapid spread throughout the island of Ireland, where the disease is now widespread.
Plant health rules that restrict the movement of plants and plant products into a Member State must be stringently scientifically substantiated so that they are not perceived to be barriers to trade (and globally also under WTO rules), under the then governing EU Plant Health Directive (Council Directive 2000/29/EC) (replaced by the new EU Plant Regulation in December 2019), only certain plants and plant products were regulated. Under the old EU Directive, ash plants, ash trees or ash wood moving within the EU Internal Market were not regulated in any Member State and could freely move throughout the then 28 Member State.
Uniquely in the EU, Ireland and the UK cooperated to simultaneously introduced its own emergency national legislative measures in 2012.
While many tree species (e.g., ash, birch, beech) were not regulated under the outgoing Council Directive, it is a positive development that all plants under the new enhanced EU Plant Health Regulation (2016/2031), require a Plant Passport when moved within the EU between ‘Professional Operators’.
My Department has recently prepared a report on ash Dieback entitled "Origins of Ash Dieback Disease in Ireland, Lessons Learned and Research Update". This report is in response to the Report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and the Marine, on ‘Issues Impacting the Forestry Sector in Ireland’ (2021).
