Munster forestry owners have angrily rejected calls for growers affected by ash dieback to sign up to the Department of Agriculture’s site clearance and reconstitution scheme.

Minister of State Pippa Hackett urged growers with ash dieback to join the Department’s revised Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS).

“It is important that remaining ash plantations are cleared without undue further delay, so I would strongly encourage affected landowners to apply to the newly launched reconstitution scheme with improved site clearance rates if they have not already done so,” the minister said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Minister Hackett made her comments following the launch of the independent review of ash dieback supports for forestry owners.

Slammed

However, Simon White of the Limerick and Tipperary Woodland Owners (LTWO) group slammed the level of support being offered to growers and maintained that it would not “scratch the surface” of the real clearance costs.

“I have 20 acres of ash. I have been quoted €5,600/ha, that’s to clear the 8ha. If I was to take the €2,000/ha being offered under the revised RUS, I’d still have to put almost €30,000 on the table to clear my ash trees,” White said.

“That is madness. I haven’t got it [the money], most of the people affected by ash dieback haven’t got it. And yet they’re being asked to do this,” he added.

The support being offered doesn’t scratch the surface of what it costs

“The support being offered doesn’t scratch the surface of what it costs, particularly in circumstances where you have older plantations. It is extremely expensive to cut out the trees and get going again.

“[The] RUS was not fit for purpose when it was launched and the revised RUS is not fit for purpose and the LTWO will not recommend that our members join it,” White insisted.

With regard to the wider review of the Department’s response to ash dieback, the LTWO chair expressed disappointment that the Minister “was not reacting properly to the recommendations of the report”.

“This is still not being treated as an emergency, but the report points out that it is an emergency,” he said.

White claimed there was a distinct lack of urgency in the Department’s response to the report, which he said mirrored their failure to take decisive action in tackling the disease.

“This is such a mess because the Department didn’t react in time,” he claimed.

'Lame excuses'

“They’re now coming up with lame excuses like COVID. This isn’t down to COVID, it is down to bad decision making, which was compounded by the Department’s failure to listen to the people on the ground,” White maintained.

“They exacerbated the problem by not dealing with it in time and made it practically illegal for the land owners to salvage what healthy timber they had.

"Because four or five years ago, it was clear that there were healthy trees that were going to be hit. We wanted to cut them out, but we weren’t allowed unless we joined the RUS. And joining the RUS was like putting a bullet in your head.”

Although White maintained that the ash dieback review has vindicated the stance taken by the LTWO, he said this is of little practical benefit to plantation owners.

“This must be among the most embarrassing reports on the Department ever. It shows up a cultural malaise in the Department. This has to change,” he said.

In terms of what should happen now, White insisted that the recommendations of the review should be implemented as quickly as possible.

Action

“We want to see immediate action. We don’t want to see the can kicked down the road again. But it has to be meaningful action in accordance with what the report recommended.

“We don’t trust them [the Department]. And we will not trust them until we see actual evidence that they are going to compensate people as was recommended and pay the outstanding forestry premiums as has been recommended and they are going to give the actual cost of taking out the timber and make an ex-gratia payment to compensate people,” he said.