Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform
Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
5:35 pm
Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister is slightly dancing around the question. If I am not getting an answer, so be it. I do not believe, and neither does the public, that the harvesting rights or any aspect of our public forestry should be sold now or at any point in the future, not just because it is a valuable economic asset but because it is part of our national and cultural heritage. It is simply not for sale. Does the Minister subscribe to that view - which I think is the majority view in this country - that our forests or the harvesting rights to them are not for sale, now or at any time in the future?