DEAR EDITOR

In the Irish Farmers Journal of 7 September, an article stated that fireblight disease had been detected in 21 counties in Ireland this year.

We know this disease has the potential to be far more devastating than the ash dieback disease if it becomes established.

The increase in the detection of fireblight cases in Ireland during 2024 is alarming.

Unlike ash dieback, this disease affects several different species of trees and plants, including whitethorn, mountain ash, apple, crabapple, pear and many different shrubs, including garden plants.

All of these species are already established, and form a large part of our existing landscape.

The Department of Agriculture has a passport system in place.

This passport should follow the young plant right from the origin of the seed, through the system until it arrives with the end user.

If this passport system is working properly, the Department of Agriculture should already know how much of the young plants were dirty and from where they came.

If the passport system has not worked properly, then what went wrong?

There is a complete vacuum in the information being passed back to the farmer, especially farmers that planted hedges compliant with ACRES in the 2023/2024 planting season. How many outbreaks have not been reported or even detected yet?

Current rules

Current Department of Agriculture rules allow for the importation of whitethorn hedging, which is grown abroad from seeds of Irish origin. Does this make the Department partly responsible for the rapid spread of fireblight here?

I have attended many ACRES courses over the past year, some of them twice.

This was, I believed, to help me farm with a better understanding of what I could do to improve our farming model with biodiversity, water quality, providing safe habitats and an understanding of what is the best practice on the farm in my mind.

Most of the farmers I know want to do the same. The risk of fireblight spreading unhindered in Ireland is greater now than ever before. If it has been detected in 21 counties this year, how many outbreaks have been missed?

Very soon whatever has gone wrong will be impossible to stop.

Do we need to pause the hedge planting part of the ACRES programme until this outbreak is brought under control?

The Department of Agriculture holds all of the cards.

It already has a lot of the answers. Our fireblight status needs to be protected – where outbreaks are already identified, these need to be brought under control.

Farmers need the full information as to where the disease came from and the suppliers of infected plants blacklisted both in Ireland and Europe.

Otherwise very soon here in the northwest all we will be able to see is naked sheep wire fencing. All of our well known trees will be diseased.