Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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16. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the details of proposed investment that Coillte is currently assessing for the County Louth and east County Meath area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60664/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy may be aware, Coillte is a private limited company established under the Forestry Act 1988 and, as such, its day-to-day operations are entirely a matter for the company. The principal objective of Coillte is to carry out the business of forestry but this also involves providing recreational facilities to the general public throughout its estate of 440,000 hectares. In addition, 20% of Coillte forests are now managed for the protection of biodiversity and habitats.

The recreation and amenity value of Coillte Forests has also grown considerably over recent years and, in fact, Coillte is the largest providers of outdoor recreation in Ireland. Coillte manages approximately 6,000 forest properties nationwide and operate an open forest policy which welcomes all walkers to Coillte lands according to the Leave No Trace principles. Over 18 million individual visits are made to Coillte forests every year with the visitor numbers increasing by 40% during the pandemic.

Furthermore, Coillte operates 12 forest parks nationwide, along with 260 recreational forests and include over 3,000km of way marked walking trails.

On their specific plans for the areas mentioned, I have asked Coillte to respond directly to the Deputy.