The outcome of the first ash dieback taskforce meeting has been met with strong criticism from some of its members.
The first ash dieback taskforce meeting took place this week where Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Pippa Hackett said there was “constructive engagement”.
However, Simon White, chair of the Limerick and Tipperary Woodland Owners (LTWO) said efforts to portray the first meeting of the taskforce as a “successful collaboration is totally misleading”.
White said: “It was patently clear to everyone at that meeting that the task force faces an impossible task“.
White stated that there is a “lack of sufficient funding within the scheme allocated to each step in a complicated process”.
As a result, White said “the stakeholders who will be tasked with carrying out the work made it clear that they will not clear and plant the majority of these affected sites because they would lose money if they attempted to do so”.
The LTWO chair said: “The plan as announced is unworkable without radical change and more funding if it is to achieve what is it supposed to accomplish clearing and replanting these dead sites.
“The lack of urgency attached to the work of this group was demonstrated by the setting of the next meeting being in September.”
The ash dieback taskforce will meet four times a year, for a period of up to three years.
IFO
Derek McCabe, chair of the Irish Forestry Owners (IFO) and member of the ash dieback taskforce who attended the meeting wishes “to refute” Minister Hacketts statement of “constructive engagement”.
McCabe said the taskforce met for the first time this week, “six months after the recommendation in the ash dieback report that such a task force should be set up as a matter of urgency”.
The IFO chair stated that the ash dieback action plan and funding package was “cobbled together…without recourse or consultation with the taskforce”.
McCabe said: “The ash dieback compensation package is fundamentally flawed, inequitable and falls well short of what should reasonably expected.
“Unfortunately, Minister Hackett has missed a golden opportunity to reignite the forestry sector,” the IFO chair added.
The terms and conditions of the taskforce were issued to both White and McCabe the night before the meeting, they each explained.
“When asked to agree the terms and conditions of the task force…the majority of stakeholders said they could only do so with expressed reservations and under duress,” White explained.
“Bearing in mind that most of these depend on the departmental forestry schemes for a major proportion of their business income it is clear they were in an invidious position if they opposed the terms of reference,” the LTWO chair added.