Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The crisis did not happen by accident. It was due to Government failure to address the lack of good import controls. I am concerned about where the costs will land. Plantation owners who applied for the grant will get it back but it will come in staged payments, so they will be out of pocket until they have the trees planted. What about the landowners who have ash trees in hedgerows or elsewhere on their land, who did not apply under the scheme? I hear it said all the time that lessons will be learned but if the cost falls to the landowners, the only lesson they will learn is not to take up a scheme, not to plant ash trees again and not to plant the next thing the Government wants them to plant because they will end up in the same situation.