Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. He played a very active role in this House over some years a number of years ago. I am delighted to see he is now responsible for this area. He has given us some interesting information today. He mentioned that approximately "693 ha of infected and associated ash plantations have been cleared and replanted with alternative species". He told us that this work "has involved the uprooting and deep burial of approximately 2 million ash trees since October 2012". I think it is an amazing body of work. The Minister of State and the entire team behind him are to be congratulated on that work.

In the UK, a website, www.ashtag.org, and a smartphone app were introduced some years ago to encourage the public to report trees showing any of the symptoms about which we should worry. I am glad to see that a new app, TreeCheck, which will cover North and South of the Border, has been introduced this month. It has been suggested that we could also use satellite imagery to better tackle this issue. Could we give grants to community groups to plant alternative trees?