Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Coillte and the issue of forestry are rightly the topics of this week. I have received hundreds of emails from constituents on the issue. A protest about the issue is happening outside the gates of Leinster House now. The Minister and his Government have been caught out by the public in allowing a deal to go ahead that they should never have entertained. I am also sure everyone concerned about the Coillte deal will be equally as exercised when they read in today's Irish Examinera piece by Paul Hosford about the EU's scathing criticism of the national forestry strategy that was designed by the Minister's party colleague, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett. The letter from the EU criticises the inappropriate afforestation on sensitive habitats, the planting on peatlands, the impact on bird species, such as the curlew, which will be extinct within ten years, and the planting and river catchments critical to pearl mussels. These forestry and biodiversity failures have occurred on the Minister's watch. How can he and the Green Party, which has never been as well represented in government, stand over this?

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