A County Cavan forest owner who is "very much affected" by ash dieback disease has welcomed a €80 million package of support from government today. Derek McCabe from Mount Nugent is chairman of the Irish Forest Owners organisation which represents 16,000 forest farmers in the country.
He and his group have been lobbying the government over compensation for growers like him who were encouraged to move from growing crops to growing species of trees as part of Ireland's climate change targets. Politicians are seeking cabinet approval for nearly €80 million funding to pay compensation to farmers like Derek. The scheme would offer €5,000 per hectare to farmers who clear ash sites and re-establish new forests in their place.
Ash dieback is, as its name suggests, a deadly fungus disease which affects the ash tree. Derek told Northern Sound problems arose on his Cavan farm after he planted ash trees imported from Scandinavia which came with a Department of Agriculture stamp of approval: "They came in with a Department of Agriculture stamp," Derek told Northern Sound, "we couldn't use them unless they were certified plants. It never made sense to be planting ash trees imported from other countries; we should've had adequate supply of them here. We have our own native stock of ash tree at the time and we should've scaled up appropriately. It was a massive mistake by government, something which they never really admitted or owned up to at any stage."
