Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I must say I am disappointed to see what has happened with Coillte over the past number of months. We are 100 years a State. It took us 300 years to get the Brits out of Ireland. The Minister is now rewarding them in relation to Brexit. We now have a situation in this country, between Coillte and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, where no farmer will be able to buy a bit of land. We have Coillte buying up land all over the country. We have the National Parks and Wildlife Service buying land all over the country.

I mean no disrespect to the Minister and to the Minister of State. Both of them are in jobs - I was in the job previously - in which they have to defend semi-State companies. I am totally opposed to what is going on in government at present. The Chairman and I, and many members here, have been here a long time. Even today, I put down six different questions to six different Ministers and every one of them came back from the Ceann Comhairle stating that the Minister has no responsibility in the matter.

Tonight, the Minister and the Minister of State should not be here. It really should be Coillte here answering our questions. It is a semi-State company. It has been given a role by the State, but it was never given the role by the State to buy up land and give it to the Brits. You can put it any way you like. The bigger companies now will be able to go in, just like Aldi, Tesco and all these multinational companies. Life is made easy by the Revenue, by the Government and by everybody for these multinational companies, whereas small farmers throughout the country are put through every rule and regulation.

The officials know that if one wants farmers to invest in forestry in this country, one has to reward them. I will tell the Minister what has happened over the past number of years. When I came on this committee - I will compliment the Minister and the Minister of State - they dealt with a number of the issues that we had in relation to licences, planning and farmers being able to plant trees. For example, I had a farmer on to me recently who tried to get planning permission to grow some trees.

He waited two and a half years to hear from the Department. He eventually got the permission but it then went to appeal and, following the appeal and after waiting almost three years, he got a refusal. Yet, the Minister is telling me he wants 14%, 15% or 16% of planting done in this country. If he wants planting done, he should ask farmers to do it. If farmers are rewarded, they will do anything. They are well capable, well able, and they have changed in the past when they were asked to change.

I will not get into any row with anybody but, not for the first time, I am disgusted with Coillte. The Minister said it does a great job. It might do a great job but I saw plant operators who worked for Coillte for 25 or 30 years, and were big operators employing people, but Coillte just got rid of them overnight. Who did it take on? Again, it was not people from Ireland but people from Poland. Coillte gave them the contracts and got rid of the Irish natives who employed people and put their lives into their businesses for Coillte but were kicked out the door overnight. I am not happy with Coillte or with what is happening here. Due to Coillte's semi-State tag, it is governed by certain legislation, as is the Government, but this decision will have to be looked at. It has not yet been finalised because Europe has a part to play in it. The EU will make the rules to suit the Government of the day. The Minister spoke about officials talking to the EU and said that we have not yet put in the application relating to forestry. I know how it works, as do the Minister and Minister of State. They, together with their officials, are on the phone to one another. I have seen it in this country. I am in this for almost 30 years. When officials want something done, it will be done with a phone call. It will not be put in writing because officials have learned not to do that due to freedom of information. This deal has to be looked at. If it is outside the hands of the Government to do so, we will depend on the EU to look at this to see what it can do to block it. The Government should come back to the Irish farmers to give them the opportunity, rewards and incentives and not put rules and regulations in place that they are not able to comply with, which is what is happening.

The Government is running people out of rural Ireland. In the next few years, it will all be Aldi, Tesco and all these multinational companies, many of which do not even pay their taxes in this country. They might employ some people but so would the small grocery shops that are left, which are being run out of business. That is exactly what will happen to farmers. We will have big beef and tillage farmers. There will be big farmers and the small guy will be wiped out. Many farmers would love to invest in forestry but the rules and regulations are just against them. To be honest, a farmer now would want to have a solicitor, an accountant and three or four graduates to be able to farm in this country because of the rules and regulations. It should be made simple and farmers should be rewarded. If they are given the incentives, they will plant plenty for the Department. There are counties where farmers overplanted because they just cannot survive on the agriculture scene as it is at present. If the Minister and his officials cannot do anything about it at official level, they need to do something at European level to block this because it is wrong for a company to come in.

We listened to the Government. The people of this country listened to it when they voted in favour of the Maastricht treaty and other treaties in referendums. We are part of the European Union but the Government is now rewarding the Brits by allowing multinational companies like this to come in and take over, including these vulture funds, and our farmers are being penalised as a result. It is not good enough.