Results 6,961-6,980 of 10,878 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Forestry Strategy: Statements (26 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: The Government is out of touch with the people we will need to deliver this programme. We need farmers, but the Government has alienated them. We need the forestry sector, but the Government has alienated it. We need local communities, but the Government has alienated them and disengaged them from the process. Unless the Government realises these failures, it will not be able to address them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: I have a number of questions. I will ask them as quickly as possible and would appreciate quick answers. A new forestry programme was announced in November. Was Coillte in touch with the Department about the timeframe of when the announcement would be made and the details made public?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: That is good but it is not the answer to the question I asked. I asked if Coillte had discussions with the Department about when the announcement would be made.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: The answer was that there was no specific engagement with Coillte on this issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: The Minister can see the suspicions people have that it was so soon after that announcement when the final deal with Gresham House was signed off on. The timing of the Gresham House deal does not make sense otherwise, because it was just a week before the new state aid rules would come into place. Coillte has cited those rules as the reason it needed this private entity in the first place.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: Did the Minister and Minister of State not ask that question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: The Minister said this is not his favoured option. Would a good way to stop it not be to tell investors that we do not want them to invest in this fund, in case there are other State-owned bodies or banks that we have shares in that might be considering this, to stay away from it? We could tell them that it has universal opposition from environmentalists, farmers, local communities and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: The question I asked was whether Coillte has secured an obligation or opt-out clause if Gresham House does not pony up the full level of investment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: The Minister is the shareholder of Coillte.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: If the Minister met with SEEFA and many other farming organisations, such as the IFA, which the Minister mentioned he met, they would tell him that the thing that has caused more consternation has been the Department's failure to adequately compensate farmers for ash dieback. My question is not related to that but relates to whether or not, in this deal, Gresham House has secured protections...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: Protections for the investors in respect of, for example, invasive diseases or anything else impacting on the forestry crop, such as natural disasters. Generally speaking, when investment funds enter negotiations, if they are dealing with people who are not up to them, they can be good at putting in clauses that ensure that they are protected from any potential loss as opposed to the people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: The one thing most people find bizarre and cannot get their heads around is that this deal has been sold by Coillte as expanding the forestry programme. As I mentioned last night in the Dáil, only 3,500 ha of the 12,000 ha in this initial deal have been sold as being for new afforestation. The other 8,500 ha will be existing forestry land. Who currently owns that land? What benefit...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: I understand why that land might become available but I am asking what the benefit to the State is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: Gresham House purchased this land. Is the Minister suggesting the existing forestry that Gresham House is purchasing will be 50% broadleaf and 50%-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: I am sorry. I did not make the question clear. As part of this Gresham House deal, the vast bulk of the land that will be purchased is existing forestry land. I am asking what the benefit to the State in that is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: Does the Minister intend to carry out an appraisal of what that might mean for local forestry companies that might currently be taking care of that land and what the implications might be for them and local economies from a social and economic point of view?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: I do not buy the Minister's line that this is not his favoured option. My view is that public opposition has brought him to that point. He has a way of proving me and any critics wrong by ensuring that this does not happen again and that Coillte does not engage in this type of investment programme. There are two ways in which he can do that. He mentioned today that Coillte is planning to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: Has the Minister approved that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: The Minister can stop it. Is that not true, under the terms of the legislation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Jan 2023)

Matt Carthy: More?