Grant aid available to clear and replant ash forest sites
Forestry minister Michael Healy-Rae has urged landowners with ash forest to apply for support under the Department of Agriculture's 'Reconstitution Scheme for Ash Dieback'.
The scheme is in place to support forest owners in clearing dead ash trees and to replant with another species to make themselves eligible for the additional Climate Action Performance Payment (CAPP).
CAPP payments of €5,000 will be made over three instalments. The first instalment will amount to €2,500 after an application is made, post the forest owner receiving payment of the Ash Dieback Reconstitution scheme.
Application for the second instalment of €1,250 may be made a minimum of a year or as late as four years after the initial instalment of the scheme and the forest owner has received all premium payments on the related afforestation contract.
The third instalment of a further €1,250 can be applied for a minimum of one year after the second instalment has been paid. Ash forest owners become entitled to apply for the CAPP payment once the first grant has been paid on their reconstitution scheme application.
Mr Healy-Rae welcomed the fact his department had paid out €23m in total since 2013 on ash dieback-affected forests.
A total of €4.5m has been paid out this year so far on clearance and replanting grants, and a further €4m has been paid since last September on the Climate Action Performance Payment to those who have cleared their lands and replanted.
The latest ash dieback scheme was launched in 2023, with enhanced features of a 100% increase in the site clearance grant rate to €2,000 per hectare, and enhancing replanting grant rates of between €3,858 and €8,555 per hectare, depending on the forest type replanted.
'This means that, 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, for those still in receipt of the farmer rate of yearly premium, they can receive a once-off top-up payment to the new premium rates within the new programme,' Mr Healy-Rae said.
"I welcome the fact that over 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.'
There is an online facility to apply for the CAPP payment. Online applications can only be made directly by the forest owner who is associated with the relevant reconstitution scheme.
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