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

It is a tremendous victory for people power and the protest campaign against the plan to sell off the forests. It is also a victory for common sense. It indicates that the Government is listening to people, which is a positive development. The Minister has stated that it is not now an appropriate time to sell off the harvesting rights of Coillte. Will he assure the committee and the public - who have expressed their opposition to any plan to sell in any part our public forests - that there will be no future efforts to sell off any part of our public forests? Will he agree there is no appropriate time to sell off what is an absolutely precious cultural, national and economic asset?