Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

We learned of the decision not to proceed with the privatisation of Coillte and its harvesting operations at the meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance yesterday. I really welcome the fact that the Government was forced to recognise the massive opposition that existed around this country to any moves in the direction of the privatisation of our woodlands. That message came through loud and clear to the Minister and the Government. I ask that the reform of Coillte referred to by Minister be done in a different way from what reform and restructuring usually means for this Government, namely, downsizing, crude restructuring, job cuts, worsening of conditions and so forth. I ask that the Government reforms Coillte in a way that brings the workers in Coillte and Bord na Móna to the heart of the management of the process in these vital areas of national life and economic activity, to give them real democratic ownership of the valuable work they do. I ask that the Government also bring in the woodland devotees, those people who are genuinely devoted to the woodlands and all they represent for our people, into the process. In that way, we will get an entirely different approach.

I had to leave the committee meeting yesterday for duties in this Chamber and therefore I missed some of the Minister's further elaborations. The troika said that the Government had to raise €3 billion, 50% of which was to be used to pay off bondholders. What is the arrangement with regard to that particular demand by this dictatorship, in view of the Government's decision on Coillte?

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