Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The reason we are here is not because we oppose investment in the forest sector, which is badly needed, but because of the type of investment. The State through Coillte should not be incentivising or underwriting investments for vulture funds at the expense of family farm incomes or viability. There are also legitimate concerns that investment by such vulture funds will inflate the cost of land, as it has done in other sectors like housing. Local farmers in rural communities could be priced out, just as many renters have been priced out of living in the areas in which they grew up.

This is a bad deal that facilitates the sale of thousands of hectares of Irish land to a British vulture fund and the Government is again doing its all-too-familiar innocent bystander routine. It is remarkable that Coillte’s annual reports make constant reference to the need for shareholder approval when it comes to big decisions like this one. Who are its shareholders? Where are they hiding? They sit on the Government benches of this Chamber. They are the Ministers, Deputies McConalogue and Donohoe. The former appoints the board and sets out its terms of office in writing. The board’s responsibilities include the approval of contracts in excess of a value of €1.5 million, approval of disposal of assets in excess of €2 million, and managing investments in excess of €3 million. The current deal establishes a fund of more than €200 million. Will the Minister confirm that he vests his confidence in the board and the approval of this decision? It is a board the Minister appointed and which he has the power to remove. It seems to me this is a bad deal whatever way you look at it. It is curious that a public-spirited board would want to enter into such a deal.

This comes from a Government which recently produced a White Paper about how it wants to support indigenous businesses. What will Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s next bright idea be? Will it be selling off our rivers and streams? The Ministers need to put a stop to this. The people are against it for valid, clear reasons. If the board will not listen to the Ministers, then they need to tell the board what is what.

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