Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Let me deal with the motion because it is a very important and significant issue that is before the House. I would like in the first instance to outline the background to the proposed sale of - the Deputies might listen to this - the harvesting rights, in order to put this discussion into context. The background is, essentially, that the Government was faced with unprecedented budgetary challenges, the result of which is that the State is currently dependent on financial assistance provided, as everybody in the House knows, through the EU-IMF funding programme. There is still a significant gap between Exchequer revenues and what we spend every day. This is unsustainable and has to be addressed. Every day, we are making decisions - difficult, hard, uncomfortable decisions - to address that and put it right, and to fix the broken economy the Government inherited two years ago. As I have said, in these circumstances, it would be negligent for the Government not to at least carefully examine all reasonable means to raise revenue and to reduce expenditure, including the release of some of the value across a wide range of our State assets.

This particular option was carefully examined and, as announced in the statement I issued in February 2012, the Government decided consideration would be given to the sale of some assets of Coillte, excluding the land, which would obviously always remain in State ownership. This was reflecting the concerns expressed at the time about the sale of such a large area of State lands. At all stages in the process, issues of major importance have been identified and efforts made to address any impediments or legitimate concerns of Members of the House or the general public. In particular, the Government was conscious of the level of concern expressed about the ownership of the land. It was agreed at that initial stage that Coillte would be included in the asset disposal programme, and further consideration was deemed necessary to identify the appropriate asset which could be sold within the entity that is Coillte.

The outcome of that consideration was that a feasible option to realise value from Coillte would be a sale of the harvesting rights to the forests. It is a commercial forestry company. It grows trees to sell them, like a farmer selling his corn - naturally enough, as that is what the trees are for. The issue then is-----

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