Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State should make a statement to the House in which he denies it is a Tipperary conspiracy to do with Kilkenny hurling because of the importance of the ash tree there.

We know how important the timber industry, in particular the ash industry, is here, whether for making hurleys or furniture or for firewood. The disease spread rapidly through continental Europe. We have discovered four or five cases of it here in imported saplings. Is it possible to put in place a test for early diagnosis and, if so, will the Minister of State obtain funding from the Department to do so? It takes a while, perhaps a few years, for the disease to be noticed in a tree when the leaves fall off and the crown starts to die. This might be too late for the trees. We saw what happened with Dutch elm disease, which wiped out one variety of elm tree.

What is the position with nurseries in this country? Importing ash from affected countries has been banned. Do we have enough stock in the nurseries to continue with ash planting or will it require a three or four year programme to acquire the amount of saplings needed to replenish our ash trees? Senator Byrne asked whether there must be a cull and, if so, whether there will be compensation. I imagine there would be compensation where ash trees were planted in forestries but not for wild ash growing in hedgerows. The country will look very bare. We do not have that many native species of trees because during the ice age the ice disappeared from Ireland much later than some continental Europe. The ash has always been very important to the country.