Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----I am sure the Minister of State has seen, given that it is from the head of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Environment to the principal officer of the forestry division within the Minister of State's Department. The Commission’s letter talked about:

inappropriate afforestation of sensitive habitats such as peatlands and negative effects on areas of high ecological value including areas under high natural value farming, notably with regard to open landscapes important for Hen Harrier ... and ground-nesting birds such as the breeding Curlew ... It has also expressed concerns about proposed planting in river catchments that are critical for the Freshwater Pearl Mussel.

It is not the Minister of State's fault that all of those areas have been degraded over the years. It is not her fault that tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár and that Ireland’s wood cover was cut down centuries ago, but it is her fault if she does nothing about it. As a Minister of State with stated environmental credentials, if she goes into a Department and does absolutely nothing about it, then it is her fault.

Turning back to Coillte, the reason one would select Coillte is because State agencies look the other way when it is Coillte. The National Parks and Wildlife Service carries out a valuable function in Clare, as it does right across the country. When the transgressor is Coillte and when the transgression is on Coillte lands, however, the National Parks and Wildlife Service looks the other way because it will be bogged down in paperwork for months with Coillte, whereas if it tackles a small farmer or even a big farmer, it will ultimately be successful and it will see a return. It is easier to go after the small man than Coillte.

Forestry practice in general is undoubtedly responsible for a degradation in water standards across Ireland, in particular, in Clare. In east Clare, the Slieve Aughty mountains that I have mentioned to the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, on many occasions, is heavily afforested, much, but not all, of it by Coillte. The local authority waters and communities office, LAWCO, has carried out surveys into water quality. There is a marked degradation in the Bleach river, in the Lough Graney catchment all the way down into Scariff and the Lough Derg special protection area, SPA. There is also a degradation on the other side, in the Slievebernagh mountains, as well as in the Owenogarney river and the Anamullaghaun river. The Anamullaghaun river, I must declare, flows through a beautiful farm that I am fortunate enough to own. Freshwater pearl mussels, recorded there right up to the 1970s, are gone. Coillte recently commissioned an environmental study because of a project that it is planning to carry out there. It did not look at eels because eels are, of course, protected under European law. They did not look at it specifically because eels were found there as recently as a couple of years ago by Inland Fisheries Ireland. They look away.

Lastly, even down to the creation of special areas of conservation, SACs, for example, the Slieve Bernagh bog SAC, I invite the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, to look at the map and see how carefully it is contoured to avoid the inclusion of Coillte land as part of that. If the Green Party wants an overall majority in the next Dáil, it should get whoever drew up that map to do the maps of the next constituencies because it is a work of art. Coillte is not treated equally to others in any way, shape or form. Of course, an investment would want to partner with it.

See this speech in context