This taskforce, which is a Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM)-chaired group, will meet four times per year, for up to three years. The following organisations attended the first meeting:
|
Ash Dieback Taskforce members |
Organisation |
|
Donal Whelan |
ITGA |
|
Padraig Egan |
FII |
|
Jason Fleming |
IFA |
|
Tom Houlihan |
Teagasc |
|
Derek McCabe |
IFO |
|
John Roche |
SEEFA |
|
Simon White |
LTWO |
The meeting has been welcomed by Senator Pippa Hackett, Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity in the DAFM. “Stakeholder participation and representation of ash plantation owners will be central to my department’s implementation of the action plan, and this first meeting of the Ash Dieback Taskforce is a key step along this road,” she said.
“The taskforce will be the forum through which my Department will engage in an open and detailed manner with representatives of landowners and of the wider forestry sector as we move forward to implement the action plan. I welcome the constructive engagement of all concerned at today’s first meeting, and I look forward to continued progress over the coming months.”
The overall support for ash plantation owners amounts to potentially €237m, including the new €79.5 million Climate Action Performance Payment, which will be paid at a rate of €5,000 per hectare. This new payment is available to all ash forest owners who, under a Departmental ash dieback reconstitution scheme, clear their sites and carry out replanting.