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

The United Nations conference at Rio de Janeiro, among other things, developed a set of principles known as the forest principles, which relate to how important forestry is in combating climate change and biodiversity destruction. The Taoiseach and others attended the UN-convened COP26 and the Taoiseach was at an environmental session in New York where he discussed the issue of climate. Forestry is key in this, as has been said on a number of occasions. Last week, I raised with the Taoiseach the issue of the public forestry company, Coillte, selling 39 acres of forestry in a public amenity area in Enniskerry, which features Bronze Age stone pits, a right of way for the Dublin Mountains Way, important geological landscapes and so on. The Taoiseach, quite insultingly, tried to cast aspersions on the veracity of what I said but then said he would look into the matter. What I showed the Taoiseach was an advertisement from an estate agent's website, advertising the sale of this land for €250,000, an extraordinary price.

The public forestry body was selling off a public amenity forest in the context of COP26, protecting biodiversity, the forest principles of the United Nations and so on. It subsequently confirmed to me in a letter that the sale was going ahead. I went up to the forest where I saw "For Sale" signs all over the place. I am glad to say that I got a call from Coillte this morning stating that it had decided, although the sale was at an advanced stage, to abandon it. That is a victory. It also subsequently suggested that it was not really going to sell this forestry, even though there were "For Sale" signs everywhere and, as of this morning, it was advertised on the website of an estate agent. Why did members of the public or the Opposition have to point the Government to the fact that the State forestry company was selling off a public amenity forest? Why was there no proper oversight?

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