Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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It is with regret that I have to stand here again and talk about ash dieback. I have spoken numerous times in this Chamber and in the committee room about the terrible financial consequences that ash dieback has brought on farmers. It is over ten years since ash dieback was discovered in this country and for the 16,000 hectares of land that attracted grant aid, unfortunately those farmers now have rubble instead of a profitable crop to harvest. I have been representing farmers for many years and I have never seen a case where a disease that was outside of farmers' control happened on farms, for which there was no compensation.

Whoever is to blame for ash dieback, it most definitely is not the farmer. We are promised another report on ash dieback in the next couple of weeks. What the men and women who own this land want is compensation. These people planted these ash trees, with the prospect of getting a serious financial return out of this crop. It is a crop that is known to be extremely profitable and it was planted in most cases on land that would not normally be afforested.

Our afforestation programme at the moment is in tatters. We have 8,000 hectares per year of a target in the programme for Government. In the lifetime of this Government, we will not plant 8,000 hectares, never mind per annum. The lack of confidence the ash dieback has caused in the forestry sector is one of the major factors why we are not meeting our targets in afforestation. The Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which I chair, and I, have put forward a report on forestry strategy where we have strongly recommended that if people replant their ash trees with whatever crop they want to put into the land, hopefully a profitable timber crop, they would access a premium for the next 20 years. While this would not compensate them for the huge financial loss they have suffered, at least they would have an income coming in for the next 20 years out of that afforestation and it would go some way to relieving the hardship they have suffered. They would have 20 years for the farmers to pay it back so the financial pressure on the Exchequer would be minimal. We have a moral responsibility to do this for these farmers. The boost it would give the forestry sector as well should not be underestimated. We would have 16,000 hectares that would be replanted within the next 12 to 18 months and that would have a huge impact on the private forestry sector, which is greatly in need of a boost. Contractors, nurseries, etc, with the lack of afforestation, are under real financial pressure.

As we get close to budget day, I urge the Minister to make sure there is an allocation in this year's budget to address ash dieback once and for all. This is something I feel we cannot walk away from. As chairman of the Oireachtas committee, we have made various recommendations to the Minister of this issue. Now is the time for action. These people have waited long enough. Let us give them compensation.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I start by thanking Deputy Cahill not only for raising this point in the House but also for his ongoing work as Chair of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and that of his committee members, in advocating on behalf of those farmers impacted. I concur with him on the impact it has on the broader forestry sector.

I offer the apologies of the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett, who could not be here and asked me to deliver this response on her behalf. I understand completely the stress and the frustration this has caused the people affected. Up there with the loss of an animal for a livestock farmer, crop failure is probably the worst other thing that can happen to a farmer. When it happens on rare occasions, it tends to be an annual crop that is gone the following year and farmers can get over it. However, to have stood in farmers' land and looked out at crops of ash that have been dying for years and are effectively dead, is soul-destroying. It affects farmers' mental health as well as financially. It has a really significant impact. I completely concur with the sentiment that the Deputy has outlined in terms of how big an issue this is for those who are affected.

As we know, it is a disease which has caused an irreversible effect on plantations throughout the country and we have been dealing with the impact since it was first discovered in Ireland in late 2012. In fact, a number of reconstitution schemes to deal with the issue have been initiated by the Department in order to help those landowners with failing ash dieback plantations. In March 2013, the Department introduced the reconstitution scheme for chalara ash dieback, to restore forests planted under the afforestation scheme which had suffered from or were associated with plants affected by the disease.

Following a review of the national response to ash dieback disease arising from scientific advice and evidence that eradication of ash dieback disease was no longer feasible, the reconstitution and underplanting scheme for ash dieback was launched in June 2020. In March of this year, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, introduced an interim reconstitution scheme for ash dieback via general de minimis, which contains a doubling of site clearance rates, increased grant rates and an improved premium regime. The purpose of the scheme is to clear all ash trees and replant with other species. Under the new programme, a reconstitution scheme for ash dieback was launched. This is the same as the interim scheme and includes a 100% increase in the site clearance grant rate, from €1,000 to €2,000, and enhanced grant rates for new forest types as per the new forestry programme for 2023 to 2027. Those applicants whose sites are still in premium will continue to receive the premium due for the remaining years. There are premiums outstanding on 7,000 ha of grant-aided ash. In addition, for those in receipt of the farmer rate of premium, a top-up premium equal to the difference between the equivalent forestry type and the existing premium will be paid. This will be calculated for the remaining years left in premium and paid in a single sum.

To date, a total of €10 million has been expended on these reconstitution schemes, involving payments on approximately 2,400 ha. Aid has been applied for in respect of approximately 6,500 ha of the 15,897 ha of ash under the various reconstitution schemes to date.

The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, established an independent review of the Department’s ash dieback support scheme in June 2023 to review the existing and previous supports available to landowners with ash plantations funded under the national forestry programme that are now infected with Chalara. The review group recently presented its report to the Minister of State. Its findings are now being considered and assessed in accordance with the regulatory and legal framework. The Department must operate any schemes of financial aid in accordance with state aid regulations, the Forestry Acts and the public expenditure codes. Any forest owner who made an application to the 2020 reconstitution and underplanting scheme or the more recently opened new ash dieback scheme will not be disadvantaged if any changes are made as a result of the independent review process.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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I have had numerous meetings with farmers who were unfortunate enough to be affected by ash dieback. As I have said, the financial loss has been very great. When there was brucellosis, TB, dioxin in pigs and severe financial losses being incurred in horticulture, compensation was always put in place. Here we have a disease that, in cases, has resulted in 20 or 25 years of given lands' productivity being lost. I have never seen loss on such a scale being incurred by farmers.

We have had various schemes to encourage farmers to clear the sites but it can be seen from the figures that farmers are not buying into them. Confidence among those in this country's forestry sector has never been at a lower ebb. We have to do the right thing for those affected by ash dieback to start rebuilding that confidence. It would be a major step in rebuilding confidence in the sector and a major boost to the private forestry sector and the individual landowners. As I said in my initial statement, my ask is very simple and clear. If these forestry owners replant this land, they should be entitled to access to the premium for the next 20 years. That will not restore their financial losses. They have lost a very lucrative crop but, unfortunately, that is water under the bridge. We cannot restore that crop; it is gone. However, if they got what would, in effect, be a pension payment for them, the vast majority of those who have lost out would be reasonably content - I will not say satisfied - that the plight they have suffered, over which they had no control, was being recognised. When this review is being studied and in the days leading up to the budget, I urge the Minister of State to put the finance in place to give fair play to these people affected by ash dieback.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Cahill for those points, which I will relay to the Minister of State, Senator Hackett. I completely concur that, when confidence is low in a sector like the forestry sector, the running sores have to be addressed and fixed. This is one such item. In fairness to the Minister of State, that is what she is attempting to do with this review. We look forward to its publication very soon. We now have a new forestry programme. Despite lengthy delays in getting approval from Brussels, we have finally got it over the line and are now in a position where, if we get our response to issues like ash dieback right, we can turn a corner on them and bring confidence back into the sector by looking after those who have been affected. Obviously, the Minister of State and her officials need to consider the report. It will be published. The resolution outlined in my earlier response needs to meet state aid rules, public spending codes and the relevant Acts but I hope we will have clarity on that in the very near future.