Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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734. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of applications for the reconstitution and underplanting scheme that have been received to date by county; the approvals issued to date by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12377/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Since the first finding of ash dieback disease in Ireland, the Department has provided support to owners of ash plantations impacted by ash dieback disease through the ash dieback reconstitution scheme (introduced in 2013) and more recently the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme introduced in July 2020.

The objectives of RUS are as follows:

- To encourage the active management of ash plantations in the context of the control and spread of ash dieback disease.

- To promote the vigorous growth of ash through thinning to realise as much of the potential value of the crop as possible.

- Where appropriate in young plantations and in cases of high disease infection, to support the removal of the affected ash crop and replacement with alternative species.

- To build resilience and diversity into plantations and possibly identify tolerant or resistant individuals.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine recently published forestry licensing targets for 2022.  The plan may be found here gov.ie - Forestry Licensing Plan 2022 (www.gov.ie).  A key target of that plan is to refocus on the delivery on approvals from the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS) (Ash Dieback). 

To date my Department has received 543 applications for 2,234ha and issued 178 decisions for 575ha.  The table below reflects these figures by county.