Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I believe it makes sense to sell the family jewels when times are tough, but it does not make sense to sell the cow, and that is the equivalent of what the Minister is doing. The sale of the harvesting rights makes no sense from an economic, financial or moral point of view. The 12,000 jobs, the €2.2 billion in annual revenue generated, and the €1 billion invested in private forestry in the past ten years will all be lost.

If the Minister persists with this lunacy and follows through on selling the harvesting rights, certain caveats must be included to protect our sawmilling sector. It is interesting to note that the Government's amendment to this motion acknowledges and confirms the concerns of the recreational bodies and the replanting and biodiversity requirements that will be catered for in the sale of Coillte's harvesting rights, but there is no mention of the concerns of the sawmilling sector being catered for. That makes a nonsense of the Minister's statement in the Dáil in September 2012 that it will be necessary to protect the supply arrangements which sawmills have with Coillte in the event of a sale of harvesting rights, and "one can stitch it into any sales process". There is no logic in this process, and therefore it is time to move on.

What do we need to do with Coillte? Our nation's forestry sector must be supported, enhanced and expanded to generate significant returns in the form of an annual dividend to be paid to our Government on behalf of the people. The sawmilling sector has been successful in developing and growing export markets to combat the sharp fall in domestic demand due to the demise of the construction industry. However, that success has not been mirrored in resource expansion, which is at a critically low level.

The sector's job creation potential has been clearly articulated to the Government. Every 15,000 hectares planted will generate 490 direct jobs. Furthermore, for every 100 jobs generated in the sawmill sector, a further 70 full-time equivalent jobs are created elsewhere in the economy. A steady supply of raw materials from Irish forests could generate some additional 7,000 jobs by 2015.

If that revenue and jobs generation is to materialise and be successful, our nation's forests need to be managed properly. That has not been done to date. Coillte, which manages and is responsible for our forests, was given 7% of this country's land for free and it has only paid one dividend to the Government - €10 million in 2011. That is a diabolical return for our country, despite the fact that over the years Coillte had been paid the highest stumpage prices in Europe for equivalent timber.

Coillte is a hugely inefficient and very poorly managed organisation. Successive Coillte management have presided over an organisation that has failed to deliver a proper return for the national assets entrusted to it. The Minister might listen to me. Over the years, Coillte has continually sold land instead of planting it. If that land had been planted, it would have provided essential raw materials for a vibrant timber industry. Historically, the money from these land sales was used to cover up the inefficient operating structures while more recently, the revenue from those land sales has been used to plug the hole in the company's pension fund.

This is very important. Coillte management have refused to order a Garda investigation into volume weight fraud, despite being requested to do so on numerous occasions. That has cost us, the country, tens of millions of euro. Surely it is incumbent on the management of that organisation, with the responsibility of one of the country's most significant natural resources, to properly protect that resource on behalf of our citizens, and the smoking gun is there to prove it. The Minister should follow up on that.

Since becoming involved in the boardmills sector in recent years, Coillte management have allowed and been responsible for poor harvesting practices in our nation's forests, to the detriment of the sawmilling sector, because it suited their boardmills to do so. That is a blatant abuse of its near monopoly position. If the Government wishes to raise immediate revenue, it should sell the boardmills, especially in view of the fact that the SmartPly plant is suffering from metal fatigue, and Coillte is looking for €85 million from the Government to invest in it.

Coillte management is holding the sawmilling sector to ransom to pay the highest prices in Europe for its raw material because there is excess primary processing capacity in Ireland, as the sawmilling sector invested in its business on the back of incorrect forecasts by Coillte. Issuing blatantly incorrect information was an abuse of its monopoly position.

If this Government wants to do the right thing for our country, the harvesting rights to our country's forests will not be sold but the management of those forests will be changed, and the organisation ran as it should be to generate a proper return for this country from one of its most significant resources. Over the years, Coillte has lost its focus on its main core business, forestry, and has moved towards areas such as wind energy and biomass, all the while becoming more inefficient every day.

A good starting point would be to publish the long overdue review of the forest sector. That review has been completed but not yet published. We paid for it, and we cannot even see it. The Minister should publish it.

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