Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Senator Pippa Hackett):

The plan I outlined relates to plantation ash forestry only and plantation ash that was grant-aided through my Department in recent years. The Deputy has raised an important issue about the widespread nature of the disease. It impacts the vast majority. There may be 1% or 2% of trees that might not be as impacted so badly. It is a widespread disease and is endemic now across Europe. There is a lot of criticism pointed at our Department that somehow we were responsible for its importation. It is endemic across Europe and it was always going to arrive on Ireland's shores, unfortunately.

I met with the IFA yesterday on issues to do with forestry and this was one of the issues that came up. Certainly the scheme I outlined in my opening statement pertains to plantation forestry. There is a need to address other ash trees across the countryside but responsibility for this does not lie wholly with my Department. A whole-of-government approach is certainly needed over the coming years to deal with those trees.

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