The removal of non-plantation trees infected with ash dieback - primarily those located on roadsides - needs to be addressed, Minister of State with responsibility for forestry Pippa Hackett has said.

Speaking in the Dáil, Minister Hackett said that while there is now a scheme for the removal of forestry and plantation ash that was grant-aided through the Department of Agriculture, it does not address the issue of roadside ash dieback.

“I met with the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) yesterday on issues to do with forestry and this was one of the issues that came up. Certainly, the scheme I outlined in my opening statement pertains to plantation forestry.

“There is a need to address other ash trees across the countryside, but responsibility for this does not lie wholly with my Department. A whole-of-Government approach is certainly needed over the coming years to deal with those trees,” she said.

Minister Hackett was responding to a question which asked if a scheme would be made available to local authorities to remove roadside trees infected with ash dieback.

Farmers have been previously cautioned against cutting down diseased ash trees because they are in such a precarious state.

Responsibility

Documentation from the IFA released last year outlined that the Roads Act 1993 places a statutory obligation on landowners to ensure roadside trees do not present a danger to those using public roads.

This position was reiterated by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue in April of this year.

“Section 70 of the Roads Act 1993 sets out the responsibility of landowners to take all reasonable steps to ensure that trees, hedges and other vegetation growing on their land are not, or could not become, a danger to people using a public road or interfere with the safe use of a public road or the maintenance of a public road,” he said.

The minister added that this responsibility includes the preservation, felling, cutting, lopping, trimming or removal of any such tree, shrub, hedge or other vegetation.