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THE GOVERNMENT has formally abandoned plans to sell off the rights for the harvesting of trees in public forests.
Agriculture minister Simon Coveney this afternoon confirmed the Cabinet’s decision not to proceed with the sale of the Coillte harvesting rights.
The proposed sale of Coillte’s felling rights had been first proposed in a review of the sale of State assets, led by economist Colm McCarthy, in early 2011.
That report had estimated that Coillte had net assets worth €1.2 billion – but the proposal has drawn sustained criticism, particularly since it emerged that former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was chairing a private investment vehicle which was advocating a sale.
Coveney this afternoon said the Government would now consider a potential merger of Coillte and Bord na Móna, to create a single state body operating in the bio-energy and forestry sectors.
The restructuring of the agencies will prioritise the payment of an annual dividend to the State. In recent years it has been rare for Coillte to return any cash to its shareholder.
A period of 18 months has been set aside for the restructuring to take place, with the Government agreeing to consider all possible options to maximise Coillte’s value at the end of that period.
“This analysis was quite extensive as it not only involved financial calculations associated with the sale process but also the possible impact on the timber industry, public access to recreational land, environmental and social impacts and consequential implications for the company,” Coveney said.
“We are determined to realise commercial potential but also to protect the public value that Coillte offers by maintaining public access to its forests and supporting the broader timber industry.”
The IMPACT trade union, which represents Coillte staff, said the report it had commissioned from Peter Bacon concluded that the sale could cost up to €1.3 billion – around twice as much as the State could have hoped to make from the sale.
“Today’s decision to retain Coillte’s harvesting rights is a sensible response to the evidence that a sale would actually cost taxpayers money,” said IMPACT national secretary Matt Staunton.
Independent TD Richard Boyd Barrett, a vocal campaigner against the sale, described the abandonment of the planned sale as “a stunning victory for people power and public protest”.
He said, however, that the campaign to save Coillte was only one arm of a larger campaign “against the give-away of Ireland’s natural resources – whether it be oil and gas, wind, fishing, or the equally disgraceful plans to sell-off parts of hugely successful and strategically important state companies such as the ESB, Bord Gais or Aer Lingus.”
Independent Labour MEP Nessa Childers said the decision was a “victory for people power and grassroots activism”, and paid tribute to the Woodland League for organising a series of protests against the proposed sale.
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Good. It was such a shortsighted proposal.
Common sense prevails!
. . For once
Thankfully this has been stopped. I saw that Bertie had started this process and I was shocked at the time the media didn’t make more of it. It should have been investigated as it may be a conflict of interest that a former minister was directly involved with a decision at government level which would affect a private enterprise he was involved with.
Alot of people have short memories as to what Bertie and his ilk set us up for.
Shame that a yoke like him who was criminally investigated could be involved with the sale of irish forests..shame on it.
That bunch of parasites would sell off the oxygen over Ireland to make a buck and dilute citizens ownership rights over national assets even further. …
Exactly. How could they sell off these assets anyway?
Who holds the receipt from Mother Eiru/Earth stating she sold herself to anyone?
She gave us all everything for free. Many have forgotten that we are all Guardians of Eire.
At least someone in authority can see the Wood from the Trees :-)
It’s a little victory for the future.
One of the very few sensible descision’s this government have made.Great news hopefully now people will appreciate what was nearly lost.
Great news sense prevails. At least that is some asset stripping stopped.
over at Berties house there must be cups and glasses flying.
Great news.
Good news, it was a really short-sighted idea. Maybe the government are starting to back away from the panicky ‘sell everything!’ mindset.
That toe-rag Bertie must be gutted!
Wish he was
Fantastic result but we must remember that they considered this in the first place because of how badly run Caoilte is. It is now time for reform. Utilise the emerald isles potential and keep it green!
I don’t think coilte is badly run but it is maybe too commercially minded,little application of biodiversity and maybe not as environmentally minded as it could be,so for those reasons merging with bnm may not be the best bet because they have similar problems,thank god they listened and didn’t sell.
Maybe reforming the agencies and services costing us big bucks would be a better start.
The government really showing leadership here.
Leadership, isn’t just doing the right thing under pressure,
Leadership will be making the assets pay a profit and reduce any waste
The Labour Party has been consistently against in the party manifesto, the selling off of state assets and have stood firm and guaranteed such rights weren’t sold off.
There wasn’t massive pressure against the government on this issue. It pales in comparison to the abortion debate in terms of an organised campaign.
So labour get the gold star for this one?didnt see them up there with Richard bb or christy in Avondale.
Huge respect must go to the Woodland League ( http://www.woodlandleague.org ) and people like Andrew St. Ledger who have campaigned on this for years and got 50,000 signatures on a petition. It looks like the government will review the decision in 18 months once a possible merger between Coillte and Bord Na Mona is complete. This could mean a possible mega privatisation (or not), so it would be wise to be vigilant. For now though it looks like a rare victory for people powered campaigning.
Why not go one step further…create an Irish Department of Conservation through the merger of Coillte, Bord na Mona, NPWS, OPW, Heritage Council, Inland Fisheries Ireland and Waterways Ireland. Could have a commercial section like norways and be a focus for conservation and recreation like New Zealand’s.
OPW ?? They also need to return the 13 sphere stones removed from Bru Na Boinne in 1997.
Great news as they were barking up the wrong tree on this issue ..
have your say