Ash forest owners encouraged to apply for grant aid to clear and replant their ash sites

Minister of State with responsibility for Forestry, Michael Healy-Rae, has urged landowners with ash forest to apply for support under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s ‘Reconstitution Scheme for Ash Dieback’.

The scheme supports forest owners to clear dead ash trees and replant with another species, and to make themselves eligible for the additional Climate Action Performance Payment (CAPP) of €5,000 per hectare.

Minister Healy-Rae said the department had paid out €23 million in total since 2013 on ash dieback-affected forests. A total of €4.5 million has been paid out this year so far on clearance and replanting grants, and a further €4 million has been paid since last September on the Climate Action Performance Payment to those who have cleared their lands and replanted.

The minister said in a statement: “In July 2023, my department launched the latest of these ash dieback schemes – the Reconstitution Scheme for Ash Dieback – under the new Forestry Programme, with the following enhanced features:

• 100% increase in the site clearance grant rate, to €2,000 per hectare;

• enhanced replanting grant rates of between €3,858 and €8,555 per hectare, depending on the forest type replanted.

That means for clearing and replanting, the range of payment to ash forest owners entering the scheme is between €5,858 and €10,555 per hectare, and they can also avail of the additional €5,000 per hectare CAPP payment. In addition, those still in receipt of the farmer rate of yearly premium can receive a one-off top-up payment to the new premium rates within the new programme.”

The minister concluded: “I welcome the fact that more than a third of the total spending on ash dieback has occurred since last September, and that the CAPP payment has been instrumental in encouraging ash forest owners to take action.

“There are still many ash forest owners who have not yet applied to reconstitute their ash forests and avail of this payment. I want to encourage ash forest owners to engage with the enhanced reconstitution scheme as soon as possible, as the quickest and most effective way to clear and reconstitute affected sites, and to avail of the Climate Action Performance Payment Scheme.”