Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. This discussion is important because forestry is an important asset. Truth be told, more people would talk about the Amazon rainforest than they do about our forest in this country. Put simply, forests are lungs for human existence. They take in carbon, which is good, and give out oxygen. Policies that the Government pursues to increase forestry and planting in appropriate places are welcome. In the Minister of State's speech, he talked about renewable energy, with biomass being part of the mix. We see in forests that are well-kept, particularly traditional forests with traditional species native to our own country, that there is biodiversity with thriving wildlife and plants. In my home town of Ballina, there has been a great collaborative effort between Coillte and the Belleek Forest enhancement committee. They reintroduce native species and the red squirrel, which had departed. They are thriving. They were introduced a number of years ago. As Senator Lawless said, it is thriving as a recreational asset too. Many people go into the forest. Pathways have been paved. It is part of a greenway out of Ballina. Everybody is so proud of it. I welcome the work that has gone on with Coillte. It is a real asset for visitors and the community. That should be encouraged.

I welcome the Minister of State's announcement last week of the latest payment rounds of forestry grants of €17 million. That means that, this year, €56.8 million has been paid out in State grants for forestry. We need to incentivise the growth of forests. We know that the realisation of the value of the asset does not happen until the forest is fully matured. Therefore, people have to be encouraged to plant trees. If we do not encourage them and make payments, there is no incentive for people to tie up their land with forestry. We have a great tradition of forestry in my county. I give great credit to former Minister for Lands, Joseph Blowick. He was in Clann na Talmhan, back in the 1940s and 1950s, and he laid the foundation stone for State participation in forestry. In recent times, there has been accelerated investment because we have a better appreciation of climate change and the bio-economy the Minister of State referred to. Joseph Blowick had a vision at the time about the role forestry could play in local economies. There was land that lent itself to forest growing and otherwise was not in use.

The kernel of what I would have to say here today relates to the issue of land use, and competing interests of forestry and farming and food production. There are issues, without a doubt, even though having more forests is a desirable objective. In counties where there is much forestry, for example, Leitrim and Mayo, there are legitimate concerns among communities that there is a forest but the spin-off is not really there for the local communities because all that happens is that the forest grows, the trees are cut and they are shipped out. It is a pressing issue in Leitrim. People are quite despondent when they see that what used to be a farm holding is taken over and planted. They see it as a death knell to a household or farm family that lived there. People are looking for more than what is on offer at the moment. What I mean by that is, giving Mayo as a case, Coillte has a substantial holding in Mayo with a forest planted, and it fells trees when they are mature but they are put on a train from Ballina to Waterford. No value is added to the local community other than premiums that farmers or landowners might receive or that they receive themselves. We can talk about jobs and about that potential but it is not happening in the way that it should. I ask the Minister of State to ask Coillte to look at these counties and to seek to deliver more to the local economy.

I will give a stark example. We have planning permission on the Asahi site near Killala in County Mayo. It is for a combined heat and power plant which would involve the burning of wood and the drying of willow or such to make woodchips. It has all the licences through the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. When the promoters were looking for the source of the raw material, Coillte would not sell to them. They may have contracts elsewhere but my point is that we were going to have a very live and real proposition to create local jobs, both within the combined heat and power plant and also to people producing timber, and Coillte did not play ball. It is shipping its wood elsewhere. The only alternative for this company was importing biomass. Talk about going contrary to the theory of reducing the carbon footprint. I know that it is a State company independent of the Minister of State but it needs to be challenged on issues such as this. It will show maps where it is doing good work but that is all in the south of the country. If one is planting in the north of the country and the people see nothing for it, it is not acceptable. Coillte needs to deliver more to counties Mayo and Leitrim and any other county in a similar situation. Other than that, we will not achieve the worthwhile targets for the reasons that have been given for why forestry is desirable. The Minister of State might respond to that.

There is an issue with the farm-forest partnerships that Coillte entered into with landowners, over 20 years ago in some cases. The Minister of State will recall an awful lot of farmers complaining that they signed up to deals with Coillte because it was a State company and they had confidence in it. They really feel let down that they have not been dealt with in a transparent way. Some did not have communication from Coillte for decades and did not receive payments. We had Coillte management before the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine on 27 February and they were to undertake a review of these partnership agreements. What is the Minister of State's view on this? What update can he give us on the review? What communication has Coillte had with him? Legitimate issues and concerns were raised about how Coillte was dealing with individuals. I feel that the attitude of Coillte was that it had entered into an agreement, it was all signed up and is legally binding. It did not involve people who had equal negotiating power. Coillte has the legal and financial muscle and its behaviour towards the ordinary widow or widower, or whoever in the country has been persuaded to get involved in these partnerships, left a lot to be desired. Will the Minister of State update us about what is happening? A number of people are affected. I look forward to the Minister of State's responses.