Forestry Minister Michelle O’Neill’s ‘Fortress Ireland’ approach to the ash dieback problem affecting the UK is to step up its campaign. She is currently working with Dáil Forestry Minister Shane McEntee to prevent the fungal disease from reaching Ireland.
She said: “We must do everything possible and sensible to prevent ash dieback reaching our shores. The threat is so serious that Minister McEntee and I have agreed to bring in additional measures to prevent imports of infected ash timber and firewood.”
Minister McEntee added: “Scientific advice is that the movement of ash timber is a possible pathway of infection, albeit of lower risk than for plants, which we both banned last week. Even though the risk is lower, the consequences of infection are so bad that we have to take any risk very seriously.”
Discussions have been held during recent meetings with stakeholders who regularly import ash wood from infected areas.
The Ministers said: “We believe that the threat from the disease is imminent and we need to strengthen the legislation now by bringing wood within the scope of the controls.
“We agree that an absolute ban is impracticable, but we believe that there are treatments of wood that will reduce the risk substantially.”
Ash dieback is currently affecting forests in Britain. 100,000 ash trees have already been destroyed, while ten cases of the disease have been confirmed in East Anglia.
60-90% of ash trees have been lost in some areas of Denmark as a result of the disease.
