Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is a difference. A private forest company will naturally go for private investment. It has no other choice. That is a given. Coillte is State-owned. That is the difference. I hope Mr. Carlin can appreciate here that what is a resource and what people feel they have ownership of is an entity that they want, not for their generation but for future generations who belong to us all.

Can Mr. Carlin understand the fears of people when he talks about new constructs, joint ventures, special purpose vehicles or whatever? The legislation allows Coillte to do what it wants in terms of notifying or not notifying, as the case may be. I am sure there is a relationship with Coillte such that it is keeping the Department, its key shareholder, abreast of everything that is going on. However, my fear is that we will end up with large swathes of our own land owned by corporate entities, which are offshored, which are international and which are competing with Irish people. These are unnamed corporates and international investment funds.

All of that is being cloaked in the language of ESG, of environmental goods and of climate action. That is the fear we have. We have sold off a lot of resources in this country that we could do with now. I will take as an example Irish Sugar in my hometown of Mallow, which was sold down the river for a song. The fear I have is that this is what Coillte is at as well.