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

The Minister's most recent response is the most worrying I have heard yet. He said he is giving assurances and then he said that things might change in the future. How can we be confident of his assurances that public access to State forestry will be protected if the profitable part of Coillte's business is sold off and the State is left holding the baby in terms of the public amenity element? If the revenue-generating element of State forestry is sold off to the private sector, it seems that either we will forced to sell the public amenities later or we will be forced to start charging for admission to those amenities, both of which would be utterly unacceptable. To my mind, the best thing the Minister could do is abandon this sad and sorry plan.

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