Limerick Minister Patrick O’Donovan thanked his cabinet colleagues for working with him to approve a new €79.5 million package for farmers and landowners whose forests have been impacted by ash dieback.
The €79.5million will provide for a €5,000 per hectare payment to farmers who clear ash sites and re-establish new forests in their place.
This is in addition to an existing €160 million scheme that pays farmers to clear their ash forests and replant them with a different species.
“Limerick farmers will benefit from this fund, and I encourage as many of them as possible to engage with the Department to draw down funding from this substantial compensation package”, said Minister O’Donovan.
The average ash plantation is 3 hectares, meaning a payment of €15,000 for those landowners, in addition to grants covering the costs of clearing and re-establishing the site.
“A farmer with 10 hectares of ash will be eligible to receive €50,000, in addition to grants covering the costs of clearing and re-establishing the site”, said Minister O’Donovan.
Farmers who have already cleared and re-established sites under previous ash dieback schemes will also qualify for this €5,000/hectare payment.
“This is a practical step towards addressing the losses people have suffered through no fault of their own, where this invasive fungal infection has ripped through the ash tree population across the country. I welcome the fact that Teagasc is carrying out research to establish a gene bank composed of genotypes of ash that are tolerant to ash dieback, with the aim to produce planting stock for forests and hedgerows across Ireland”, said Minister O’Donovan.
