Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am also worried about the people he appointed to high places. What is going on in this country? It is a complete sell-out. It is disgraceful and must be resisted at all costs. If we look at what was tried in this sector in Sweden, we will see that those involved failed and are now handing it back.

I would like to mention two organisations in my county, Aherlow Fáilte and Knockmealdown Active. The mountain ranges where they are based - the Galtee Mountains and the Knockmealdown Mountains, respectively - are heavily covered with Coillte woods. They could not have developed walk ways, cycle ways and mountain trails in both ranges without the excellent co-operation they have received from Coillte. The people who volunteer to assist both of these community groups nurture our heritage and develop our tourism projects. They will be locked out and told "to hell or to Connacht" when these rights are sold to private interests. The same thing happened in the case of Eircom and we know how it was plundered. The same will happen when responsibility for Irish Water is given to Bord Gáis. I was contacted this morning by a contractor who had applied to work as a plumber to lay pipes with the new water company. I hope the Minister for Public Expediture and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, is listening to this. He was told he would need to have a turnover of more than €400,000 per annum.

This is all about big people getting control and keeping small people down. We cannot have this and must not have any more of it. We are paying enough homage to the troika. Our people are in enough misery without selling their assets and china. They have taken enough from us. We have bailed out the banks. Are we going to allow some of them to gain ownership of Coillte? We know that would result in people being locked out of the woods. Trenches will be dug across the gateways and barriers and signs saying "no trespassing", "no walkers" and "no hikers" will be erected. The birds will not be allowed to fly in. They will try to stop the deer from grazing there.

The Government has a fight on its hands. I am ashamed to think the Labour Party representatives in government are carrying on in this way with this kind of proposal. The Labour Party is no more than a mudguard for Fine Gael as it tries to sell our natural resources.

After all their talk for the past 14 years, I believe these two parties want to punish the electorate for banishing them from government for those 14 years. They have got their mandate now but they seem to want to punish the people on a daily basis - if it is not this, it is something else. I say to the Minister that he has something else to fight for.

See this speech in context