Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the members of the Irish Timber Council. I am utterly opposed to the sale of the harvesting rights of Coillte, which is not just, as has been explained, a hugely valuable economic asset but a priceless cultural asset. Frankly, if one pardons the pun, it is nothing more than treason to even consider selling off the harvesting rights of our public forests.

Could the witnesses outline how they feel their campaign is going? We had a big demonstration against the proposal at the weekend in Avondale. As soon as people know that it is being considered, they are utterly appalled. Do the witnesses take heart from the comments of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, on foot of the campaign of the Irish Timber Council and IMPACT and the big protest at the weekend that the Government has moved from a commitment to sell our harvesting rights to saying it is unlikely or it is being considered? That would seem to suggest that the Irish Timber Council’s campaign is moving in a successful direction but I would be interested to know what the witnesses think.

There has been much criticism of Coillte as well. Some of it, as hinted at in the previous comment, suggests that it is being used to justify the move towards privatisation. Even under the previous Government, the McCarthy report referred to the possible disposal of Coillte.

To my mind there are problems with Coillte but they would be made significantly worse if the company were privatised. The issue is about reforming Coillte not selling it. Could someone comment on the problems?

I wish to inquire about the sustainability of current forest strategy. The Bacon report suggested that we need to plant approximately 20,000 ha per year to have a sustainable forest strategy while we have only planted approximately 5,000 ha. How do the witnesses think we can improve the situation?

Concerns have also been expressed about monoculture and the overdependence on citrus spruce rather than diversifying forestry towards hardwoods. Do contractors need assistance, first, to move towards a more diversified forest strategy and do sawmillers and contractors need assistance from the State to shift away from a dependence on citrus spruce?

Could the witnesses comment on the 2010 report in which Irish forest contractors painted a very bleak picture of Irish forestry? They said the industry was utterly doomed because of over-harvesting and under-planting. It was suggested to me by one of the forestry NGOs that the level of harvesting was 1.5 million tonnes, whereas the optimum amount of harvesting to maintain a sustainable forest strategy should only be approximately 1 million tonnes, and that if we keep going in that direction we are going towards deforestation which would ultimately be bad for the sawmill sector. Someone might correct me if I am wrong. I would welcome a comment on what I have said and what the witnesses think is behind the sale of 40,000 ha of Coillte land in recent years, even before full-scale privatisation was considered? In the opinion of the witnesses, why has that been happening because there seems to be a significant lack of transparency in the way Coillte operates and why it has been selling public forests in recent years?