Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad? Tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár. My goodness, we are back again. Mention was made today of our visionaries and leaders who fought to free this country. We will commemorate one of them, Liam Lynch, on 10 April of this year. He lost his life, unfortunately, in the Civil War. He was leader of the IRA forces at the time. What ideals they had. A film called "The Dying Days" is being made at the moment and the crew is walking through forestry and trees, or what is left of it by the British. The IRA forces ran the British out of here through guerilla warfare. They could not deal with them. Are we now going to bring the British back in under the names of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party? They are green all right, but they think the people are very green. The people are not green and they are wide awake to the Green Party. It has caused the devastation in Coillte. The delay in licences was there when the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, arrived in the Department. The ordinary farmers cannot get licences. They are being penalised and blackguarded every which way they turn. After applying for three or four different licences, if they wanted to cut a cipín, the Government would not let them. It blamed the staff and everybody else. This is its fundamental policy. The Government did not want this. Those policies are disastrous for this country.

I thank the forestry officials, the Coillte officials, who have worked with me and my daughter, Councillor Máirín McGrath, Knockmealdown Active and the Glen of Aherlow Fáilte Society on beautiful forest walks and amenities. I salute those volunteering groups that have created wonderful amenities for people to visit. Are we going to be certain now that the gates will not be locked, with padlocks across those walks? We are not because we will not have control of this. It is as simple as that.

The Constitution is there on the desk and the Proclamation is read out at so many commemorations. What of unfettered access to our land and property from sea to sea? Where are we now? We are being sold out to vulture funds. It is easy for Deputy Bruton to say we are getting excited or are overreacting. The next time he is down in Clonmel with his bean chéile, I would ask him to go out to Kilcash and to the Knockmealdown Mountains and see what is happening out there and see the beauty and the enhancement of what is there. We have been sold out. The Minister of State did not do that but her predecessors did. Fianna Fáil sold the sugar industry, a wonderful industry. The current Government has sold out the fishing industry. The Green Party is certainly part of that Government. Now it wants to kill off the beef, dairy and cereal crop industries and allow land to be sold off to vulture funds. We have seen the horrible vulture funds. We heard former Minister Michael Noonan describe them as a necessary evil. Vultures are horrible creatures by nature. We know what vultures, great crows etc. do to young lambs. The very thought of that is anathema to me and the people who elect me.

I intend convening a meeting this Sunday at the Knockmealdown Mountains, at the monument to the site where Liam Lynch was fatally wounded. He died in Clonmel hospital afterwards. I invite all and sundry who want to come to enjoy the mountain air and the freedom they have at the moment because of Coillte. I also thank Coillte for providing a loop walk car park this year, and I thank Tipperary County Council and Councillor McGrath for getting the funding to develop that. We want to keep that for future generations. Today was grandparents' day in my local school, which I missed to be here to try to protect our forests and to get the Government to reverse its decision on Gresham House for those grandchildren and our future generations not to have a country craven to big business, craven to vulture funds and craven to the banks. We saw the bailout. We saw how Deputy Donohoe, in his last act as Minister for Finance, gave back the bonuses to the banks. I say "Halt, "Stall the horses" and "Reverse this deal". If we cannot reverse the deal, Coillte should be disbanded, which we have the power in this Oireachtas to do, and a new organisation set up to serve our country and our people. We will not have a bit of carbon sequestration or anything else in this deal. It is rotten from every point of view, and I cannot believe the Green Party is part of it when it talks so much about carbon tax and so on.

Again, I salute the men - it was mainly men - who worked in the forest service and their families. They were dedicated and drained the land by hand, planted those trees, made the ridges and harvested them back in the 1940s and 1950s. They made lovely entrances and painted gates with ornate timber and signage. They had respect and love for their work. That is all being wiped away - our heritage, our culture - by a Government that is craven to vulture funds and big business. Members of the Government go over to World Economic Forum, WEF, conferences all the time and speak to people who want to sell out our Constitution. Those Members then have the cheek to go to Arbour Hill and similar places and read out and salute the Proclamation. They should be totally ashamed of themselves and ashamed of every breath in their bodies. They do not represent the people who gave us the freedom of this country. They should not be able to speak their names. They are not fit to do so. It is disgraceful. This must be stopped. If it means disbanding Coillte, we will stop it.

See this speech in context