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

I would appreciate if we could get the list of all contracts between Coillte and other State agencies going back to 1989 as soon as it becomes available.

The initial loan facility for Coillte, when it was established and as provided for in legislation, was €30 million. In 2009, this was increased to €400 million. Around that time there was a large deficit in Coillte’s pension fund. The National Pensions Reserve Fund bought harvesting rights through the Irish Forestry Unit Trust for some of Coillte’s forests. When I met the company last week, it explained to me it sells the harvesting rights of its forests to entities of various sorts to get cash which it then invests elsewhere. Are we giving indirect supports and subsidies, as well as direct supports, to Coillte but not knowing where this money is going? It is certainly not going into afforestation programmes because Coillte is not allowed do such programmes and cannot contribute to what should be its core objective. Where is the money going then?

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