Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion opposing the disgraceful deal entered into between Coillte and Gresham House. It seems that there is no crisis where the Government does not think that equity funds is the solution. With housing and climate; who does it call? It calls equity funds. Its neoliberal mantra is that private capital and profit making are the solution rather than the problem in both of these areas.

The Government has claimed that the reason for this deal is to help reach the afforestation targets required under the Climate Action Plan of 18% of forest cover. As the motion points out, Ireland has among the lowest levels of forest cover in all of Europe, with only 11%, compared to a European average of 40%. One has to barely scratch the surface to realise that this deal is not motivated by the environment but by cold, hard profit. Coillte's press release on the deal tells us that, "The fund is designed to generate profits from the business of forestry and timber production."

Likewise, a spokesman for Gresham House said, "Our aim is simple,to produce a consistent supply of certified timber for the Irish processing sector." From neither the Government nor Coillte, nor, unfortunately, from Sinn Fein in this motion, is there any mention of the impact on biodiversity. That is left to environmental activists, including Friends of the Irish Environment, the Woodland League, Croí na Cré, Save Leitrim, Save Cavan, and others. They have all condemned this deal and have pointed out that not all forests are the same. Trees alone do not a forest make. A real forest is a complex biodiverse ecosystem not a lifeless monoculture of Sitka spruce. In supporting this deal, the Government literally cannot see the wood for the trees.

Likewise the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss reacted to the deal by calling for a fundamental reassessment of forestry legislation to ensure that biodiversity and positive ecosystem services are core objectives for Coillte. One could be forgiven for assuming that the public body responsible for managing our forests would already have biodiversity as a core objective. Unfortunately, successive governments have ensured that is not the case. Coillte was saved from privatisation in the past by a strong environmental campaign involving People Before Profit, and many others.

I remember speaking at a major rally alongside Deputy Boyd Barrett and others at that time. However, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and now the Green Party have made sure their main goal, like that of too many publicly owned companies, is simply to ape the private sector in turning a profit regardless of the public good. In the case of Coillte, this has meant planting vast monocultures of Sitka spruce to go with the vast monocultures of grass that make up most of the rest of this green country.

Gresham House is on the record as saying it intends to continue to do that by planting up to 80% Sitka spruce, continuing a form of ecocide that has turned our forests into graveyards of biodiversity rather than guardians of it. All genuine environmentalists should vehemently oppose the deal, yet the Minister of State and the Green Party are shamefully endorsing and greenwashing it.

I call on everyone to support the protest against this deal outside the Dáil on Thursday. I am sure this will be the first of many until this is stopped. We need to bring together genuine environmentalists, communities, small farmers and public bodies like Coillte, which should be acting in a very different way, to democratically develop a radically different model of forest and woodland management. This new model must be an ecocentric one, with biodiversity and rewilding, not profit making, at its heart. We must aim to restore and protect nature in a way that supports communities and small farmers, rather than box ticking carbon offsets and lining the pockets of international investors.

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