Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Over the past week or so, dozens of people have contacted my office about this joint venture with Gresham House and about the subsidisation, collaboration and corporate takeover by this UK equity fund. Many people who contacted me raised the sell-off of telecoms, housing and bins, the attempted sell-off of water, the sale of the national lottery and now the sale of our forestry. Some of them had lived abroad, such as in Germany and England, and had seen what had happened there following similar sell-offs to vulture funds. A man from a hill farmers' organisation asked how people in his line of work, who are not wealthy people, were expected to compete with this type of investment fund. Throughout Kerry, people talk about Sitka spruce and the damage it has done. In Knocknagashel and Brosna, the rivers have, in effect, been poisoned. The brown trout that used to swim there, along with other signs of biodiversity, have gone. The same is true of Lickeen Wood and Glanteenassig. A man from Glencar told me it is similar to the way the Caragh river has been blocked off to locals, who cannot even swim in it without someone saying it has been taken into private hands.

The widespread demand of all the people who contacted me, comprising a coalition of farmers, forestry people and environmentalists, was for a forestry strategy that will deliver for the environment, local communities and the economy, but this subsidised, grubby joint venture will deliver none of that. The venture appears intended solely to circumvent the rules that prohibit Coillte from receiving its subsidies for afforestation and partnering with a company that will be motivated primarily by profit, and that is not good for the selfsame farmers' groups, forestry people and environmentalists. The Government should be upfront and it is not too late for that. It should try to halt this joint venture and publish its new forestry strategy as soon as possible.

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