Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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235. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress to date in dealing with ash dieback disease; the number of confirmed findings of this disease in each of the years 2012 to date in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35661/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I would advise the Deputy that on the Department’s website  there is a dedicated section on Ash Dieback disease. It gives a comprehensive account of all the work by my Department to date to try to curtail and eradicate the disease on a national basis and the findings from each of the targeted and systematic surveys undertaken from 2012 to 2016. The website also provides information on the Reconstitution Scheme (Chalara Ash Dieback) which is available to assist owners of forests planted under the Afforestation Scheme which have suffered from the disease to restore those forests, as well as information on research projects into the control and management of the disease, in particular projects to identify trees that show strong tolerance and or resistance to the disease. There is also a national distribution map and summary table of all confirmed findings up to the second quarter of 2016 (i.e. 30 June this year). This table and map will be updated with the figures for third quarter of 2016 in the coming days.

To summarise the current situation and to speak to the long term outlook, at this juncture it is important to note that notwithstanding the positive effects at local level of the eradication actions undertaken to date, both by affected landowners supported by the Reconstitution Scheme or directly by the Department itself, the annual systematic surveys and targeted surveys as well as follow up inspections by Department Inspectors have indicated year on year that there is a continuing rise in the number and geographic distribution of confirmed findings nationally. By June of this year, at a time when the targeted and systematic summer surveys were still underway, the initial results were already such as to confirm the presence to a greater or lesser extent of the disease in all 26 counties.

Another factor is that initially the findings were in imported ash trees. Later  the disease was found in native hedgerows beside infected imported ash trees. The Department is now finding the disease in native hedgerows where there is no obvious introduced source of infection nearby. In addition over half the recent findings in forest plantations are in ash trees of native Irish origin. It is also worth noting that in  Britain the disease has spread quickly and widely in the natural environment over the same time period.

As already noted, the Department is actively supporting a number of research projects into disease, in particular projects with a key long-term focus of developing an ash tree breeding programme to identify trees that show strong tolerance and or resistance to the disease and the genetic basis for tolerance. It is through such programmes that a long term strategy for ash can be identified and supported.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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236. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the average length of time it takes to respond to reports of possible ash dieback disease; the average time it takes to complete appropriate investigations and determine a positive or negative finding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35662/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Department, in line with the commitments given in the Customer Charter and Customer Action Plan 2015-2020 endeavours to acknowledge reports of possible ash dieback disease received by email within 1 working day and in the case of reports received by letter within 3 working days. The Department will endeavour to issue a more comprehensive reply within 20 working days thereafter. Receipt of all reports successfully submitted using the TreeCheck App are also automatically acknowledged.

The time taken to complete field investigations and testing can vary greatly depending on the individual circumstances of the case reported. The time taken to complete this work and inform the forest owner of the outcome is dependent on the following factors:

- the level of detail initially supplied by a reporting party;

- assessment by the Department’s Inspectors as to whether ash dieback disease is actually involved and an evaluation of the potential risk associated with the report;

- the need in terms of the efficient and prudent use of public resources to schedule follow-up visits on such reports with other already planned survey work or inspections, and

- the need for both the Department’s Inspectors and its laboratory scientists to prioritise different bodies of work at different times of the year.

Depending on the above factors, the time taken to report the final outcome to forest owners could be anything between three weeks and three months.

In terms of calculating the average time taken to reply to reported cases it is not practical to do so given that there are now 255 confirmed cases of ash dieback disease in forest plantations.

The number of cases that would have to be revisited to calculate this figure is much greater than this figure if sites with negative test results are taken into account. Furthermore, an average figure would be a poor indicator of how long an individual forest owner could expect to wait for a reply from the Department given the significant range that exists between the shortest response time and the longest.