Two weeks after he called on DARD to suspend grant funding for ash planting Ulster Unionist MLA, Robin Swann has welcomed the decision by DARD to take his advice and suspend grant funding for ash planting, but described it as "an inevitable decision which took far too long’. 

The North Antrim Representative said;

“At long last DARD have realised that continuing to award people to plant ash trees was in stark contrast to their frantic efforts to ban the imports of ash saplings and inspect all of those which have recently been planted.   

Whilst I am usually a strong advocate of grant funding to increase our woodland cover, I believe that the moment it became apparent that there was a devastating disease widespread across our European ash saplings, the Department should have suspended all grant funding. It made absolutely no sense for the Department to continue to promote the planting of ash trees whilst at the same time banning their importation and tearing up and burning the large number which had been infected with fungus Chalara fraxinea. Indeed I made this exact point two weeks ago when I called for an immediate suspension of grant funding then.

My Party is extremely concerned about the potentially devastating impact this disease. The news coming from Denmark is that 90% of all of their ash trees are now showing symptoms of the fungus and will eventually die. With every passing week we are hearing worsening reports. In England the disease is now present in their indigenous trees and I have real concerns that if the same crossover happens in Northern Ireland then we may be witnessing the decline of one of our most significant native species.”