A Clare forester believes the government must place emphasis on rebuilding farms affected by ash dieback going forward.
It comes as a new Department of Agriculture report has called for the disease to be treated as a national emergency and for a taskforce to be established to re-establish plantations.
Minister of State Senator Pippa Hackett has published the report of the Independent Review Group into the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s response to ash dieback disease, which affects approximately 16,000 hectares of ash forest nationwide.
Following the first recognition of the disease in 2012, two schemes aimed at assisting affected farmers have been opened, in 2012 and 2020, and €10 million has been spent on these schemes to date.
In May of this year, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue claimed the government was prevented by EU law from financially aiding farmers who experience income loss to due ash dieback.
However, Senator Hackett’s new report says it should be understood that the cost of site clearance and replanting should be borne by the state.
Whitegate Fine Gael Councillor Pat Burke, who previously had ash plantations on his land, says the government was work to do to rebuild trust with farmers.
Following the report’s publication, Senator Hackett has said a final implementation plan will be put forward for government approval within weeks.
Darragh forester and former Green Party councillor Brian Meaney says the focus must now be on rebuilding farms which have been decimated the disease.
You can listen to the full interview below.
