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

It is important during this European week that we review the experience of the last year. While Members have referred to certain negative things, I want to discuss some of the positive developments here and in Europe as a whole. One of the very positive things that happened in the last week was that 4,000 people went into the Wicklow hills to join in a demonstration featuring music, poetry and readings from plays to indicate that they wanted to retain ownership of their public forests despite the attempt of the troika and the Government to take that away.

Amazingly, and tremendously positively, within two days of the demonstration a Government Minister said the sale of the forest was unlikely. That is a good news story.

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