Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State need not put her hands in the air. I expect her to come back with a good answer as to why she is treating people this way, along with the Minister, who is an absolute disgrace and could not answer any of the questions I asked him during last night's meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The statement goes on to say that Irish taxpayers' money will be:

paid in forestry grants and premiums to investment funds to purchase 100,000ha of our sovereign Irish farmland to establish forests. The Irish taxpayer will be paying for the sale of rural Ireland to investment funds. [Is that not betrayal?] This will not add to the local community or the local economy, and furthermore this will have a negative social impact through rural depopulation by encouraging investment funds to compete for land thus disadvantaging existing local, new entrant and young farmers. While any income (forestry premiums, carbon value, profit) will not be spent in the local community or local economy as it would be if farm families or local people afforested these lands [and if they were assisted in that]. We believe this is Government policy to meet afforestation targets at any cost. It is likely to be counterproductive. We do not support it. And it is a bad deal for Ireland.

That comes directly from the organisations of whom the Government needs to take heed at this stage. Macra na Feirme has expressed serious concerns about young farmers being outbid and about their not having access to land, even though generational renewal is a real issue that comes up in the EU. Those concerns are all being ignored. It is high time the Minister of State listened to people and called off this deal now.

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