The failure of Minister of State Pippa Hackett to meet with forestry growers impacted by ash dieback was severely criticized by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture earlier this week, according to the Farmers Journal.
In reviewing the Department of Agriculture’s performance on ash dieback, it was recommended that growers that had been affected should be included in a taskforce to map a way forward for dealing with the disease.
In response to this, the Limerick Tipperary Woodland Owners group told the committee that they had not received contact from the department – some five weeks after the publication of the review.
Ash dieback was described in the review as being a national emergency, calling for a rapid response that has not been delivered.
Present at the meeting was Roscommon Galway TD Michael Fitzmaurice who said that “we need a waiver to clear (infected) sites.”
He has been speaking to Midwest Radio’s Rian Bailey:
