Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 13 December 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Forestry Strategic Vision: Coillte
Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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That is okay. I am not trying to catch Ms Hurley out. What I am trying to establish is if we are looking at 3,500 ha a year, why is Coillte not buying it itself? I have done the figures at a fairly high rate. Coillte would be giving a good price for land and a fund of €30 million. Why is it that it has not gone down that road? What is the game?
Are the investment funds that are buying the land going to be drawing single farm payments? This year the Department has changed the system to ensure it does not need clean land as well as forestry. Are they going to be drawing the single farm payment and getting the grant? Is that part of the game that is going on here? What is the skin in the game for them with the timber at the end of the process?