IFA urges Tipperary council to devise plan to remove roadside trees with Ash Dieback disease

The Irish Farmers Association has told Tipperary County Council that a plan needs to be put in place to remove roadside trees infected with Ash Dieback disease to prevent a major accident caused by them falling.

South Tipperary IFA Chairman Pat Carroll called for the plan to rid roadsides of these dead or dying trees in a wide ranging presentation he gave at Tipperary County Council's March meeting in Clonmel focused on bureaucratic and regulatory frustrations farmers are dealing as well as other problems.

Mr Carroll reminded Council management there are huge issues regarding Ash Dieback on the county's rural road and urged that a plan for their removal be put in place before there is a major accident. “These trees are called widow makers for a reason,” he warned.

The New Inn farmer said not only did trees stricken with Ash Dieback pose a major health and safety risk to road uses but also to anybody involved in removing them.

The IFA didn't want to see a situation arise where farmers would be forced, in a panic situation, into attempting to remove these trees themselves.

Independent Cllr Máirín McGrath and Sinn Féin Cllr David Dunne supported his call at the Council meeting.

Cllr McGrath said the Council really needed to work with farmers on this issue. It was in everybody's interest.

Cllr Dunne said Mr Carroll had made valid points about Ash Dieback. He considered the danger posed by roadside trees infected with Ash Dieback disease to be a “national emergency” and pointed out that he has raised the problem “umpteen times” on the Council.