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

As the question spells out, it is about supports and funding to Coillte since it was set up in 1989. The context for this question is that I favour public support and investment for a semi-State company engaged in forestry. After the meeting which the Minister kindly set up with Coillte for me last week, what came across clearly was Coillte's fairly bald statement that it is precluded, primarily by the EU, from contributing to meeting our afforestation targets. Coillte cannot contribute to one of its core activities. I asked for what are we giving Coillte funding and support if it cannot do what should be its primary activity and whether it is, in fact, that funding is going to push Coillte towards more commercialised activities which have little to do with its core activity.

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