Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We cannot speak about climate action without speaking about forestry. I have repeatedly said in the House that if we fail on forestry, we will fail on climate action. The Government is failing dramatically.

The programme for Government sets out an annual target of 8,000 ha per year in new afforestation, but instead the Government has overseen the near entire collapse of Irish forestry. We are now planting fewer trees than we were during the Second World War. Under a Fianna Fáil Minister and a Green Party Minister of State, forestry outputs have got worse since this Government came into office. Rather than engaging with the forestry and timber sectors, and farmers and local communities, to address the core issues that have led to the current dysfunction, Ministers have organised photocalls and press conferences and commissioned report after report, but all the while the crisis in forestry has intensified.

In an all too familiar story, the answer of the Government appears to be to facilitate the sale of thousands of hectares of Irish land to a British investment vehicle. We are told the Green Party Minister of State knew, as far back as March 2021, about Coillte's plan to use such a private vehicle to acquire land. Yet following the recent formal announcement by Coillte of its proposed arrangement with the Gresham House funds, Ministers have pretended they are neutral observers. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is the shareholder, on behalf of the Irish people, in Coillte and he can and should instruct Coillte to stall this plan immediately. The Government can and should state categorically that it will not permit the use of €2 billion plus of Irish taxpayers' money to facilitate this land grab.

This joint venture is not about climate. It is not even about forestry. Gresham House has confirmed that 8,000 ha of its Irish portfolio will consist of existing forestry land and as little as 3,000 ha will be bare land for new tree planting. From the perspective of Gresham House, this is all about corporate profit. It is a typical approach that sums up the Green Party in government, an approach that points the finger at ordinary workers, families and communities, while the Government fails to reach every single climate objective it sets. A good forestry policy is one that delivers for the environment, for communities and for local economies. The Coillte joint venture with Gresham House will deliver in none of those areas, just as the Government has delivered in none of these areas. The Minister should, therefore, use this debate as an opportunity to confirm that the Government will stop this scandalous venture immediately.

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