Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 12 March 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Coillte: Chairperson Designate

Photo of Tim LombardTim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Gray.

As portfolios go, she has the most unique one in the State. I always thought the Office of Public Works, OPW, was one of the biggest landlords, but Coillte has 1 million ha of property, which is an amazing portfolio. Of the Deputies and Senators in attendance, five of us, including the Chairman, also sit on the special Committee on Climate Action. I have just copped on to that now. It is probably a unique circumstance. Coillte's role in the context of climate change is something Ms Gray might clarify with regard to its huge portfolio, where it is going with the property and what the agency's policy in that space will be going forward. Coillte was not involved in the hearings over recent weeks in the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action. The five members here were very much involved and will report in two weeks. How does Coillte feel about that new space into which it is moving? How can Coillte be a real leader in that space as an organisation whether it is on carbon or managing the landholding itself? Where does Coillte see the landholding going with regard to hectares of forestry? Will Coillte start another purchasing campaign? Will Coillte seek to increase its acreage nationally? If so, what is the target for the next decade on the amount of land or the acreage it expects will be under forestry as its core enterprise? I realise that Coillte has diversified into other enterprises, but it is amazing to have a landowner here with approximately 7% of the land area of the State in its ownership. It is a unique holding and it brings unique responsibilities. Where does Coillte fit in, therefore, with climate action? What are Ms Gray's personal views on it?

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