Coillte deal: "One this land is gone, it's gone"

Forestry can be a contentious issue in Leitrim, but there seems to be an almost complete condemnation of Coillte's deal with Gresham House in London.
Under the deal, private investors represented by the fund management firm Gresham House can invest up to €200 million purchasing Irish forestry. This will then be managed by Coillte, the State body currently in charge of forestry.

Councillors Gerry Dolan (IND) and Paddy O’Rourke (FF) both had motions against the new Coillte deal with Gresham House at Ballinamore Municipal Meeting on Monday which was supported by all representatives.
Cllr Dolan said “Coillte is set to sell off massive tracts of our forestry land to a British investment fund. This would be a huge sell-off of land to a corporate investor whose plan is to plant Sitka Spruce, the least beneficial type of forestry for our environment.

“This will effectively price farmers out of the market in parts of the country and once this land is gone, its gone.”
Cllr O’Rourke asked for support to call on the Taoiseach and his cabinet to take “whatever steps are necessary” to prevent the Coillte deal, “whose purpose in purchasing them is to allow their clients negate their carbon emissions.”
Cllr O’Rourke went on to say Coillte was born because people wanted to take forestry away from the Department of Agriculture and political decision makers, it was decided to give it independence; “the same as HSE and Irish Water.” He went on to say that all of these independent bodies had proved to be a “disaster.”
Cllr O'Rourke added, “now it has a life of its own and makes commercial decisions - nobody is in favour of it.”
He further stated he believes if Coillte was still the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture this new decision would have come across somebody's desk and “it could have been blocked.”
He quipped, “sometimes we have to be careful what we wish for.”

Fine Gael Cllr Enda McGloin said he heard Minister Eamon Ryan on the radio saying “he could do nothing” about the deal and the “Government has no power to change it,” but that there will be protocols put in place to intervene in any other such deals in the future.
Sinn Féin's Cllr Brendan Barry said he didn’t believe that Government ministers did not know about the deal earlier.
He said correspondence has now come out to say the National Strategic Fund for state pensions are investing in Gresham House.
He said it was similar to the situation where the Government sold off the Eir poles and now have to rent them back for broadband.

Cllr Barry condemned the deal saying, “We are selling off land to an English company to make money on investments through it.” He added “there has to be some way of stopping it” noting that this forestry is owned by the Irish state.
Cllr Gerry Dolan concluded the issue saying that “in five years time the whole lot will be gone and we won’t be able to get it back.”
Ballinamore MD sent letters calling for action to stop the deal to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and the office of the Taoiseach.
Macra na Feirme are one of a number of bodies who have expressed their concerns over the deal saying, “it will have a negative impact on generational renewal and access to land for young farmers.”