Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) farm forestry chair Vincent Nally said he is incensed by recent comments from Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue on “savings” from the Government’s forestry budget.

Nally said the underspend is a direct result of the Government’s failure to meet planting targets because of the forest licensing crisis and the lack of supports for farmers whose ash plantations have been devastated by ash dieback.

The Co Westmeath drystock farmer warned that there should be “no savings in the forestry budget”.

Underspend redirected

Nally described how there are “thousands of farmers whose income has been devastated by ash dieback” and claimed these are being “coerced by this Government to continue to invest in a dying crop through the reconstitution and underplanting scheme”.

He said only 1,895ha of ash plantation has been established so far in 2021 and that this represents a 22% decline on the area planted in 2020 and a 46% decline compared with 2019.

“This is unacceptable and any underspend in the forestry [budget] must be redirected to fund a proper reconstitution scheme.

“The €7m underspend would support the replanting of approximately 1,100 hectares of diseased ash plantations and support a premium payment of €605 per hectare on the re-established crop next year.”

Targets unachievable

Nally called on the Government to “start to listen to farmers and appropriately compensate those affected by ash dieback”.

He said the afforestation targets set out in the Climate Action Plan to plant more than 8,000ha “will not be achieved” if such action isn’t taken.

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