A temporary ban on the import of timber from Scotland is needed to reduce the risk posed by a bark beetle outbreak, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) will tell a sitting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture on Wednesday.

The IFA delegation will be led by president Francie Gorman, who stated that the damage caused by introducing ash dieback into the country cannot be replicated with the bark beetle.

“A spruce bark beetle outbreak would cause extensive economic loss to the forest industry, but it would be farmers that would bear the brunt of the economic consequences, which include a reduction in the commercial value of the infested trees, increased management costs, as well as replanting costs,” Gorman said.

“While measures are currently in place to prevent an outbreak, the effectiveness of these measures must be scrutinised and it must be a priority to avoid another devastating blow to the forestry sector.”

Speaking before going in front of the committee, the IFA president warned that the short-term need to import timber from Scotland would be far outweighed by the damage that would be caused by a widespread introduction of the pest.

“We must not put the forestry industry and our forests at risk for short-term gains. The experience from Europe is that overlooking just one spruce bark beetle can lead to widespread infestation,” he added.

Farmers’ trust low

The association’s farm forestry chair Jason Fleming pointed out that farmer confidence in the forestry sector has already taken a hit from experiences of dealing with ash dieback.

Fleming maintains that the State has shown the need to prevent disease or pest outbreaks and to have contingency plans in place in the case that outbreaks do occur.

“Farmers do not trust that adequate biosecurity measures are in place to prevent the introduction of the spruce bark beetle to Ireland or that the current inspection regime is sufficient and consider the importation of timber from the pest-free areas to be a major threat to the health of their spruce forests,” he said.

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