Minister of State Healy-Rae encourages ash forest owners to apply for grant aid to clear and replant their ash sites
- Foilsithe: 23 Iúil 2025
- An t-eolas is déanaí: 23 Iúil 2025
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 welcomed the fact that his 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 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
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.”
The Minister concluded:
“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.”
Notes
In July 2023, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine launched the latest of these Schemes the Reconstitution scheme for Ash Dieback under the new Forestry Programme 2023-27 with the following enhanced features:
- 100% increase in the site clearance grant rate to €2,000 per hectare
- enhanced replanting grant rates under the new Programme 2023-27 of between €3,858 for conifer forests, €6,744 if you chose to replant with native trees, and €8,555 for agroforestry
- for those in receipt of farmer rate of premium, a single top up premium equal to the difference between the equivalent forestry type and the existing premium is paid for the remaining years left in premium
This was accompanied by the Climate Action Performance Payment, paid directly to forest owners. This is a fixed scheme paid at a rate of €5,000 per hectare paid on the basis of the area determined at first grant on the relevant Ash Dieback Reconstitution Scheme.
The payment will be in three instalments as follows:
- 1st instalment of CAPP - €2,500 An application for the 1st instalment of the CAPP payment may be made after an applicant receives payment of an Ash Dieback Reconstitution scheme replanting 1st instalment grant
- 2nd instalment of CAPP - €1,250 An application for the 2nd instalment of the CAPP payment may be made the year after receipt of the first CAPP payment once an applicant has received payment of an Ash Dieback Reconstitution scheme 2nd instalment grant and have received all premium payments on the related Afforestation contract. (The 2nd instalment grant on an Ash Dieback reconstitution scheme can be applied for 4 years after the 1st instalment Ash Dieback Reconstitution scheme grant has been paid)
- 3rd instalment of CAPP - €1,250 An application for the 3rd instalment of the CAPP can be made the year after the second instalment of CAPP 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
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.
Full details of the Reconstitution Scheme and CAPP scheme can be found at the following link: Reconstitution Ash Dieback Scheme 2023-2027 and Climate Action Performance Payment Scheme.