Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Sherlock.

I had a bit of déjà vu when I found out about this proposal. To be fair, I am not sure how, in a sleepwalking way, it just appeared in front of the Government. I appreciate Coillte is autonomous but it has to report to the Minister and the Minister of State. I predict this will not happen because I can sense a public outcry building up about it.I am surprised by the attitude of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party because I recall what happened when Fine Gael tried to sell Coillte. I am one of the few Deputies left in this House, along with my party colleague to my left and perhaps one or two more, who remembers that because the then Minister with responsibility, Pat Rabbitte, prevented it. He prevented a lot of privatisation efforts that had been proposed by Fine Gael leading up to 2011.

I understand, as does the Labour Party, that a new approach has to be taken to forestry. We are nowhere near meeting our targets and do not have a hope of doing so, but this is not the solution. It will be opposed. We can see already the concerns being expressed by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste but also by many Government backbenchers and, dare I say it, other public representatives throughout the country. This concern is based on real issues. I have a lot of questions about Coillte's role here, which I do not have time to go through today, as to the origins of the proposal, the make-up of it, the role of the Secretary General and the assistant secretary who is responsible for it, and the manner in which it came about, all of which will have to be outlined, but in essence it is privatisation by the backdoor. It is a slide we do not want to go down and the Government is going to have to reverse it. It is going to have to call Coillte to heel.

I accept that Coillte has claimed it cannot meet the scale of investment required. That is a legitimate point for the agency to make and the Labour Party and I accept it, but the Government should support it directly through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, or through the investment of new capital rather than outsource all the profits to the private sector. In a way, this is a siphoning-off of funds from the public purse into a small number of private hands. These funds would be used to far greater effect by both increasing our level of afforestation and supporting Irish farmers to develop their own forests on their own lands.

I have heard a great deal about why this could not happen and why Coillte is not partnering with Irish farmers despite it having such great expertise in this area, which I believe to be true. I have heard this would not be possible under EU law, but the Government is in government to help change that kind of thing. When I was an MEP working with a Government of whom my party was not a part, we were able to change state aid rules and a number of other rules because we thought they were unfair. How is it fair, proportionate or right that supposed EU rules such as this one can be used to justify such an approach when everybody can see that putting that money directly into afforestation and working with farmers and landowners would be the right thing to do?

If the Government has to shame the EU in relation to bad policy, it should do so. We have done it before and achieved proper change.

On another remaining issue, it would be handy if the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, got off her phone but I do not accept that she will have control here of the pendulum which is financial considerations versus biodiversity and climate concerns. That control is lost once this is signed. Finally, an issue that has been lost is that in many parts of rural Ireland, like my own county of Tipperary, land values for communities, for small farmers and for developing farmers will be hugely affected as a consequence of this. Trust me, that will be an issue of concern particularly to those in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

See this speech in context