TD calls for ban on selling off publicly owned forestry

Richard Boyd Barrett says it is an 'absolute scandal' that Coillte is trying to put 39 acres of forest on the market

The land in Enniskerry, on the Dublin-Wicklow border, had an asking price of €250,000. File picture

Calls have been made to ban the sale of all publicly owned forestry after Coilte tried to put 39 acres on the market.

Solidarity-PBP TD Richard Boyd Barrett has said it was an "absolute scandal" that Coilte is selling off State-owned forest on a "regular basis" for residential and industrial development.

"We have a fundamentally broken forest model where profit is dictating what is happening even with the State forestry company. And the net result of that is that the EPA said a couple of years ago we have net deforestation going on," he said.

Mr Boyd Barrett said he received confirmation from Coilte last week that it was selling the public forest, which includes important archaeological artefacts and is part of Dublin Mountains Way.

The land in Enniskerry, on the Dublin-Wicklow border, had an asking price of €250,000.

Huge public outcry

Mr Boyd Barrett said that after a "huge public outcry" over the weekend, Coilte contacted him to say plans to sell the land have been abandoned.

"What was extremely telling with the phone call from Coilte. First of all, they said had we not raised it, it would have been sold, it was at an advanced stage it was being advertised publicly and the context for the sale was quote 'an interested party had approached Coilte in order to buy it', which in and of itself is an extraordinary admission."

Richard Boyd Barrett: 'We have a fundamentally broken forest model where profit is dictating what is happening even with the state forestry company.' File picture: Gareth Chaney

Mr Boyd Barrett said Coilte has a list, "decisions for excision", on its website which shows  public forests that have been sold in recent years with "no explanation" given.

He said Government policy on the climate and biodiversity crisis is "completely deficient".

"In reality, public forest is being sold off for commercial reasons and being privatised," he said.

That says it all about the Government's speaking out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to addressing the climate and biodiversity emergency, but in this case, we scored a victory."

Mr Boyd Barrett said we now need to ensure no more publicly owned forest is sold off.

"We need to be expanding the public forest estate. We have the lowest level of forest cover anywhere in Europe despite the fact that this country has the best conditions, bar none, for growing trees.

"People may not know this, but trees grow faster in Ireland because of our climate conditions than anywhere else in Europe. But we have 11% for forest cover, as against an average of 30%-35% in Europe," he told reporters outside Leinster House.