merrion street

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, today gave an update regarding the findings of the ash disease Chalara fraxinea or ash dieback. In total there are now 46 confirmed cases of the disease. Of these 26 are in forestry plantations in Counties Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Longford, Meath, Tipperary and Waterford. There are 14 Horticultural Nurseries that have tested positive for the disease, three samples from roadside landscaping have tested positive as well as one Garden Centre, one private garden and one farm. In addition to the confirmed findings other samples have been submitted on an ongoing basis to the laboratory and the results are awaited.

Minister Coveney said "My Department have extended the scope of the survey work to cover ash plantations planted since 1992 and are also surveying AEOS and REPS plantings." He added "I am conscious that this situation has presented difficulties for those that have had to remove and destroy ash plants but I believe that taking decisive action now on imported ash product is the correct approach to prevent the establishment of this disease in Ireland."

In conclusion he stated: "I am pleased with the progress on the Chalara Control Strategy being jointly prepared with our colleagues in DARD in Northern Ireland and I would welcome feedback on this document from interested stakeholders when the draft is published in the coming weeks"

Notes to editors

All previous press releases on Ash dieback and other information including an up to date table of findings is available on the Departments Ash Dieback Chalara webpage:

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/forestservice/ashdiebackchalara/