Farm Forestry Committee chairman with the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) Vincent Nally has said the requirement for farmers to get planning permission to replant diseased ash plantations with conifer species, is the final nail in the coffin for the Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS), commonly referred to as the ash dieback scheme.  

“Farmers have had enough. They have been abandoned by this government and are being forced to deal with the financial fallout of ash dieback with a scheme that provides limited financial support,” Nally said.

"The obligation to maintain diseased forests to a required standard is placing farmers, who are desperately trying to deal with the consequence of the disease, in an untenable position,” he said. 

The IFA is urging farmers to exercise caution when applying for the scheme and make sure they are familiar with the terms and conditions and their obligations under the scheme.

“The RUS scheme obliges forest owners to continue to manage and invest in a dying crop; to manage under a continuous forest system that may be contrary to the management objectives; and provides no compensation for the loss of earnings inflicted by the disease. That is if they even qualify for the scheme,” Nally added.

Nally added that the low planting rates are a direct reflection of farmers’ unwillingness to plant and commit their land in perpetuity, when they see the treatment of farmers whose forests have been devastated by the disease.

The IFA has said that the RUS needs to be scrapped adding that farmers have invested up to 20 years growing ash, only for their crop to be devastated and any expected financial return nullified.

For both aspects of the RUS, support is available for partial or total site clearance in advance of either reconstitution or underplanting.

Support is also available for reconstitution or underplanting.

Reconstitution involves replanting a former ash plantation with an alternative species. Underplanting involves partially replanting a partially cleared ash plantation.

In both cases, all Grant and Premium Categories (GPCs) under the Afforestation Grant Scheme are available to the forest owner, including agro-forestry.

Regardless of whether reconstitution or underplanting is undertaken, the clearance grant is set at €1,000/ha cleared.