DONEGAL TD Pearse Doherty has joined several organisations in opposing plans to sell off Coillte harvesting rights.
Mountaineering Ireland, the Irish Timber Council, Peter Bacon and IMPACT Trade Union all attended a Leinster House briefing today.
“All of the groups and individuals who addressed this meeting today highlighted the devastating impact the decision to sell off the harvesting rights for Coillte will have on jobs, tourism, the forestry sector and the state finances,” said Doherty.
“There are 42,983 hectares of land in County Donegal under the ownership of Coillte, this is the second highest figure in the state, only being surpassed by Cork.
“As the Bacon Report concluded, the sale of forestry harvesting rights would ‘in effect bring an end to Coillte as a commercial entity’. Not only would such a sale be financially bad: entailing a loss of hundreds of millions of euro, but it would also hardly make sense to have Coillte remain in existence at all if the objective is to realise value from such a sale.
“Furthermore it was revealed that over 18 million people visited Coillte lands last year. It is clear from this figure that these lands are a significant tourist attraction and amenity. Currently, Coillte operates an open access policy – will this remain the case in future years if private companies have their way or will no trespassing signs be the norm?
“The clear implication is that a sale of harvesting rights is in effect the first step in full privatisation. It also has massive implications for other uses of the nine per cent of the County’s land that is under Coillte stewardship.
“What for example will happen to any mineral deposits under Coillte land? There was a geological survey conducted some years ago but Coillte are very coy with regards to what it revealed. When Sinn Féin raised this before Christmas at a Committee meeting we were told by Coillte that they have a ‘ball park’ notion of where potentially valuable mineral deposits are to be found.
“I wonder do some of the potential privateers, such as former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, involved with a company that has expressed an interest in acquiring either forestry harvesting rights or even Coillte land, also have a similar ‘ball park’ notion, and is that one of the motives for wanting to gain access to Coillte lands? No doubt certain people know more about those potential deposits than any of the rest of us.
“Whatever the motivations for the sale, the best interests of the Irish people are certainly not among them. I am calling on this Government to honour their pre-election pledge not to sell off Coillte to private investors – it is bad enough to consider such a move for short term financial gain, but when all the evidence shows that there will be no gain at all but potentially huge losses then it really is time to go back to the drawing board before it’s too late.”