The Irish Forest Owners (IFO) group has described as “unacceptable” the Department of Agriculture’s performance on ash dieback.

The IFO claimed the rate of approvals under the compensation package for ash plantation growers, the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme, was far too slow and was leaving growers in limbo.

It is unclear how many approvals have been issued under the compensation package so far this year, but plantation owners maintained that it was less than 50.

Move on

“Although the ash dieback scheme does not provide adequate compensation for the losses incurred by ash forest owners, there are those who just want to move on and replant. And yet they cannot even do that. It’s beyond frustrating,” an IFO spokesperson said.

“The number and rate of approvals issued to date for this scheme is unacceptable. All barriers to the scheme need to be removed and approvals issued in a timely manner,” the spokesperson added.

“Every ash forest owner should automatically qualify to join the scheme. The disease is in every ash plantation, so it makes no sense to have to go through a damage level assessment step. It’s a complete waste of time and money.”

It is estimated that up to 20,000ha of ash plantations could be infected with ash dieback.