Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation.

I understand the witnesses were initially invited here last November and I am sorry it took so long for this meeting to take place. In the meantime, however, they have got their message across as to the potential impact the sale of Coillte would have on their industry. It is very heartening to hear that everyone at this meeting today now appears to be vehemently opposed to such a sale. That proves that there is a purpose to coming in here and that one can change the minds of others, which is very heartening.

The witnesses spoke about the potential impact of the sale of Coillte on their industry. What happened in France could happen here, in that all of the raw materials would be sent out of the country with the potential closure of the saw milling sector. There are also many private forestry growers in Ireland and I understand that €1 billion has been invested in the last ten years in forestry. What would happen to those growers if Coillte was sold? I would imagine they would have nowhere to sell their product except to those who would not give them a sustainable price. I ask the witnesses to give their views on that issue.

While it looks like Coillte is not going to be sold, during a Private Member's debate on a motion tabled by Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett earlier in the year, the Government's amendment to the motion referred to the fact that the concerns of recreational bodies and the replanting and bio-diversity requirements would be catered for but there was no mention of the saw milling sector. That stood out for me. We are hearing more positive noises now but I would be wary, given what was in the Government's amendment, or rather, what was not in it. There was no assurance for the saw milling sector.

Many people asked today why there is such a premium on the price coming from Ireland and I believe I have the answer to that question. The Coillte management is holding the saw milling sector to ransom, forcing them to pay the highest prices in Europe for the raw materials because there is excess primary processing capacity in Ireland, as the saw milling sector invested in the business on the back of incorrect forecasts issued by Coillte. Issuing blatantly incorrect information was an abuse of its monopoly position and has left those in the saw milling sector with too much capacity, meaning that Coillte has the sector over a barrel and can charge what it likes. It is my opinion that this is exactly what Coillte was seeking. It also feeds into the fact that we need 25,000 acres or hectares per year to make it sustainable but we are only planting 5,000 per year. Hopefully, the sale of Coillte is off the table but to use that terrible phrase, "going forward", what do we do? I ask the witnesses to give their views on the fact that the Government has not yet published the review of the forestry sector. Perhaps we will get some promises from Government members today that the review will be published. There is a cast-iron argument as to why we should not sell Coillte. Hopefully, once that is confirmed, we can move very quickly to working on improving Coillte. It got 7% of the State's land 22 years ago but has given the Government no money apart from what it got from selling off land. It is now in debt to the tune of €170 million and has a pension deficit of €135 million. That is some achievement. If one tried as hard as one could one could not make a bigger mess of it.

Hopefully we will move on from this and concentrate on what we do with Coillte. The forestry industry in Switzerland sustains far more jobs and is far more productive than ours. We must concentrate on what we will do in the future.

I visited a processing plant in Ballygar run by the Murray Timber Group and was very impressed. One expects when visiting such a site that one is going into an agricultural setting, with very little high-tech equipment but it was like going into a space ship. My parliamentary assistant, who is an engineer and who joined me on that visit, said it was like engineering pornography, it was so sophisticated. The saw mill sector is doing what it needs to do. The forestry sector must also do what it needs to do to keep up with the levels of sophistication, investment and forward-thinking of the saw mill sector.