{"id":2020,"date":"2023-01-26T13:15:22","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T13:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/minister-cant-see-the-wood-for-the-trees-on-coillte-deal\/"},"modified":"2023-01-26T13:15:22","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T13:15:22","slug":"minister-cant-see-the-wood-for-the-trees-on-coillte-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/minister-cant-see-the-wood-for-the-trees-on-coillte-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister can\u2019t see the wood for the trees on Coillte deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Ireland\u2019s Forest Strategy has been undermined by partnership with UK investment firm<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Coillte\u2019s controversial partnership with a UK investment firm is undermining Ireland\u2019s new Forest Strategy before it has even begun, according to Social Democrats Agriculture spokesperson Holly Cairns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe long-delayed Forest Strategy says all the right things and makes big commitments. But based on this Government\u2019s track record and the recent Coillte deal with Gresham House, it is not worth the paper it is written on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot surprisingly, there are widespread objections to this arrangement. Under the plan, Coillte \u2013 a public body \u2013 will do all the heavy lifting by sourcing tens of thousands of acres in rural Ireland, planting trees and managing the forests. However, private international investors will reap the rewards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlready, \u20ac25 million of public money has been invested in the fund to facilitate a corporate land-grab of huge swathes of rural Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Coillte deal highlights serious flaws in the Government\u2019s approach to forestry policy and climate action. The State should be developing our forests in a way that supports biodiversity and a sustainable forestry sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Minister for Agriculture seems to have been asleep at the wheel by allowing this agreement to be signed off without proper public scrutiny or debate. Minister McConalogue has stated that the Coillte deal is not the Government\u2019s preferred option, yet his department has been aware of a proposed public\/private partnership for almost two years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt appears that the Minister has been unable to see the wood for the trees when it comes to the Coillte deal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCoillte makes a profit of \u20ac100 million a year and has a landbank of over 1.1 million acres \u2013 so why exactly does it require the involvement of a UK-based investment firm?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of this undermines the credibility of Ireland\u2019s new Forest Strategy before it has even begun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>January 26, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ireland\u2019s Forest Strategy has been undermined by partnership with UK investment firm Coillte\u2019s controversial partnership with a UK investment firm is undermining Ireland\u2019s new Forest Strategy before it has even begun, according to Social Democrats Agriculture spokesperson Holly Cairns. \u201cThe long-delayed Forest Strategy says all the right things and makes big commitments. But based on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[410,400,7,399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-holly-cairns","category-press-release","category-tds"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Minister can\u2019t see the wood for the trees on Coillte deal - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/minister-cant-see-the-wood-for-the-trees-on-coillte-deal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minister can\u2019t see the wood for the trees on Coillte deal - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ireland\u2019s Forest Strategy has been undermined by partnership with UK investment firm Coillte\u2019s controversial partnership with a UK investment firm is undermining Ireland\u2019s new Forest Strategy before it has even begun, according to Social Democrats Agriculture spokesperson Holly Cairns. \u201cThe long-delayed Forest Strategy says all the right things and makes big commitments. 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