Fine Gael TD for Limerick, Patrick O’Donovan has welcomed the announcement of measures from Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Shane McEntee TD, to prohibit the importation into Ireland of plant material from ash dieback infected areas. These measures, introduced by Ministerial Order, take effect immediately. They have been introduced in conjunction with similar measures taken by Northern Ireland authorities to keep Ireland free of Chalara fraxinea, ash dieback disease. The measures will make it an offence to import ash plants and seed from areas within the EU that are known to have the disease.
Minister McEntee said “This is a very aggressive disease in ash trees and we must do everything possible to keep it out and it is for these reasons that new legal measures are now in place. This follows on from a voluntary import ban from continental Europe by the forest nurseries”; he added “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the contractors and owners of the ash plants from the infected batch and for all those who gave their time to co-operate on the task of ensuring a quick destruction of the disease on the infected site and on the other 10 sites where the same batch was planted out.”
Patrick O’Donovan said that Ireland’s forestry industry is of major importance to the overall economy of the State and measures like this needed to be introduced to protect the investment that has been made both by people from all over the country who depend on the forestry industry and the many associated services for the income. The matter had been raised at the recent British Irish Parliamentary Assembly which Deputy O’Donovan is a member of, and it was agreed that every effort should be made by authorities north and south of the border to ensure that the disease was contained and dealt with.