Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

What we see here, despite what those in government have said, is a sell-out. We all know the dangers of climate change that we are facing. We all know that forestry is one of the best ways this country can help fight climate change. This deal shows the lack of seriousness of the Government towards climate change. This deal shows the Government's lack of an effective plan to deal with it.

Only 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. This crisis was created by large corporations. Large corporations continue to make this crisis worse. They are not stopping any time soon. The Government wants to put the solutions to this back into the hands of businesses so that they can make money out of a crisis they have created.

Forestry is vital to combating climate change. It takes CO2 out of the air. It traps greenhouse gases in the soil. It helps reduce in our air and water. It develops ecosystems that speed up all these process. We need natural woodlands, not only to hit emissions targets but to make sure we have solutions to climate change. These forests need to be native and sustainable. They need to promote wildlife and help stop biodiversity loss. They need to benefit communities and farmers and improve people's lives, and they need to be owned and controlled by the public. The deal does none of those things.

What this deal does is use public money to hand over lands and profits to a private company. It takes land out of the hands of rural communities. It reduces farmers' ability to plant trees by raising the cost of land on which to plant them. It encourages and worsens the problems of Sitka spruce and monocultural plantations in Ireland. It is handing €2.1 billion of taxpayers' money into corporate hands - more, by the way, than it would cost the State itself to buy the land and plant trees.

The Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss has said that this could lead to the sell-off of public lands and agreed that State-owned woodlands should be recognised and managed as a strategic long-term national asset for the benefit of the common good. This should also be reflected by keeping land and money in rural communities for their common good. This deal is a clear step away from either of these. We have seen from the Government shareholder's letter of expectation to Coillte that it has no problem with this at all, even though the Minister is now saying it is not the Government's preferred option.

We can fight climate change. We have the time and we have the resources. Rather than using that fight to grow our country and society, to put this country's lands and resources in the hands of its people, and to grow and benefit local communities and people's lives, this Government has, once again, gone back to its old playbook to make the cost public and privatise the profits.

These companies caused climate change but rather than hold them to account, this Government will not let them walk away scot-free, but with their pockets filled as well. There has been a lot of hay made about how no land will be privatised in this deal, but the money will, the grants will and ordinary people will not see any of it. This has been the line of Government parties for decades that if one cannot privatise assets, they will privatise the profits. It is the reverse of what we did with the banks where we nationalised the debt and taxpayers had to pay. This is not good enough any more.

Today, we see, as has been said, that the European Commission has criticised Ireland's forestry policy in a scathing letter. In a leaked document, the Commission's Directorate-General for Environment stated a strategic environmental assessment report submitted as part of the draft national forestry plan does not sufficiently address concerns. In October, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine published a screening note for the forestry strategy from 2023 to 2030, which says that the plan will be 100% Exchequer funded, with state aid approval expected from the European Commission. We now know that letter has not even been submitted. This Gresham deal with exacerbate this and the aforementioned letter confirms that the deal should be shelved. We need to tear up the entire strategy. This is the price we pay for Coillte having a misguided mandate.

We do not only need a just transition; we need a just transformation. We need climate justice. We need to make sure that those who have contributed the most to climate change contribute the most to fixing it. This does not happen by handing over billions of euro to big corporations. It happens through taking back power from these corporations and putting the power and benefits back in ordinary people's hands.

This deal and its policy only make the rich richer while everyone else struggles. I oppose the deal. The solution to climate change cannot be in the hands of big corporations. The money to fix it cannot be either. It needs to be in the hands of the people in our communities.

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