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

If we are going to protect and improve biodiversity and increase forest cover as part of that, something radical has to change in Coillte, the State forestry company. The Riverstick forest sale is an absolute disgrace. Before Christmas I had to help the local community in the Enniskerry area to ring alarm bells about Coillte’s plan to sell a public forest in that area, which is a public right of way used by the local community. Luckily, we were successful in that campaign but what is going on in Coillte? We need to address its mandate. Part of the problem is that it is driven, a bit like the ESB making all the profits from the energy crisis at the moment, by profit. It is not driven primarily by a concern to expand the forest estate but by making money. That has to stop and we need to change the mandate of Coillte.

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