Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett has welcomed new restrictions on exports of spruce timber from Scotland.

Senator Pippa Hackett has engaged with her department in relation to the certification of coniferous roundwood (spruce) from the Pest Free Area (PFA) in Scotland to Ireland. These measures are intended to provide additional protection for Irish forests from the potential importation of pests.

Welcoming the announcement, Minister Hackett said: "My Department has worked closely over a number of months with the Scottish authorities to arrive at an outcome that will protect Irish forests, so these new restrictions on the movement of spruce logs from some of the west of Scotland’s Pest Free Area are a positive step in maintaining Ireland’s protected zone status for certain forestry pests.

"My Department has had detailed discussions on these new measures with its Scottish counterparts, with the overall aim of ensuring that the integrity of the Pest Free Area is maintained and that Irish forests are protected. The presence of Dendroctonous micans in Scotland is a real concern. My Department’s priority has been to ensure that any imports are pest free, , so now is an appropriate time to take these additional steps and to reduce the area within the Scottish PFA from which logs can be exported to Ireland.

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"I am supportive of the steps taken by Scottish Forestry with the input of my officials. The new measures will ensure that no further phytosanitary certificates will be issued for the movement of spruce roundwood to the island of Ireland originating from any area inside the PFA that falls within a 35km buffer zone imposed around the most recent findings of D. micans. This is a significant step. My department will continue to closely monitor the situation in Scotland and take all the steps necessary to ensure that Irish forestry is protected.

"One of the key principles of my Department’s Plant Health and Biosecurity Strategy is risk-based surveillance for early detection, in line with international best practice and scientific evidence in support of early detection of pests and diseases. My officials maintain very close contact with counterparts in Great Britain and in Northern Ireland on this issue. It is vitally important that all forest stakeholders remain vigilant at all times and report forest health concerns as a matter of urgency, and I will very shortly establish a Forest Health stakeholder grouping to facilitate regular exchanges on this issue."

The timeline for the introduction of these measures is as follows:

• No phytosanitary certificates will be issued for roundwood originating within the buffer zone from 1st March 2024.

• Any shipments of roundwood originating from the buffer zone must arrive in Ireland and have cleared the port / pier before 1 April 2024.

• After 12 months there will be a presumption to expand the buffer by a further 10 km. The final decision to make this change will be agreed between Scottish Forestry and the relevant authorities on the island of Ireland.

Ensuring plant health surveillance and implementing controls on both sides of the Irish Sea are essential for safeguarding Ireland's forest health. By incorporating these measures alongside phytosanitary checks at entry points to Ireland, additional safeguards are established for logs sourced near the nearest detection of Dendroctonous micans to the Protected Forest Area (PFA).