Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The plan to sell off the harvesting rights of 1.2 million acres of State forestry, the people's forests, to pay off the debts of bankers is an act of national sabotage and betrayal. Public ownership of the forests and the trees that stand on them is the birthright of Irish citizens.

I do not know if the word "treason" has its roots in the word "trees" but to sell off the State forestry is an act of treason. What the Minister is planning to do has been done by no other country in Europe. Only one country, Sweden, sold off some of its state forestry but a few years later quickly took it back into 100% public ownership. When it was proposed they would sell off the state forests in Cameron's Britain there was a public outcry and following widespread public consultation the plans were abandoned.

There has been no public consultation here. That is not surprising because if there was a public consultation with the stakeholders and the people who care about our forests they would tell the Minister that privatisation puts at risk thousands of jobs, both direct and indirect, in the forestry sector, that all the valuations done so far for the State forestry lands are gross undervaluations, which suggest we will be selling off the harvesting rights for approximately €500 or less per acre when agricultural land here sells for approximately €2,000 or €3,000 per acre, and that even under Coillte forest assets are being sold to prop up the hole in the pension fund. How much more of our national forests assets will we see stripped if private for profit and commercial interests take over the State forestry?

Consultation would also tell the Minister that because forests take 30 to 40 years to rotate inter-generational stable stewardship is needed of the sort that we cannot have when we are talking about speculators and profiteers running the forests. They will tell him that in New Zealand, where privatisation has taken place, there have been major problems with public access, job losses and outflow of profits from the country.

There is simply no justification to sell our forests, and the Minister should abandon this plan immediately. At the very least he should have a public consultation where the facts of Irish forestry and what the impact of its sale would mean for this country could be discussed.

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