Confirmation of an additional €79.5m for farmers and landowners with plantations affected by ash dieback disease will address the issue and is vital to restoring farmers’ faith in forestry, North Cork Fine Gael Councillor John Paul O’Shea has said.
The new fund will provide a payment of €5,000/ha in addition to supports to clear and replant the areas affected. In total over €230m will be available to support the estimated 6,500 farmers and 16,000ha of ash affected.
Cllr. O’Shea said: “There are ash plantations across the country impacted by this disease, including here in Cork County. For farmers who have been affected, who have stood in their plantations and watched these trees slowly die, the impact has been torturous.
“It is vital that we restore these farmers’ and their neighbours’ faith and confidence in forestry, if we are to have a farmer-led forestry sector. The support package announced this week, with additional funding of €79.5m, is a welcome and very important part of that process.
“Farm forestry can be an attractive option for farmers to integrate as part of their wider farming enterprise. By supporting those farmers who have been impacted by ash dieback in their plantations, it serves to boost the confidence of them and others to consider the options available in Ireland’s €1.3bn forestry programme,” Cllr. O’Shea added.
In addition to the new Climate Action Performance Payment (CAPP) of €5,000 per hectare, a number of other financial supports are available to those affected. These include an increased site clearance grant rate of €2,000/ha, enhancing replanting rates for a range of options including conifer forests, native trees or agroforestry, and a once off top-up for those still in premia equivalent to the difference between the new and old rates.
Fine Gael’s Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Martin Heydon said: “I have stood in plantations affected by ash dieback and have seen first-hand the impact it has had on farmers’ wellbeing. It is in all our interests that these farmers are supported to deal with ash dieback through the clearance of affected plantations.
“The Action Plan announced this week provides the necessary tools to achieve that objective, and I urge farmers to engage with my Department’s Reconstitution Scheme at the earliest opportunity.”
