Irish Government can’t see the trees for the profit - 1.2 million acres of forest up for sale

Sale of the Coillte harvesting rights for an estimated €600 million is folly

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Why not sell the country’s harvesting rights (the right to cut and sell timber)? After all, our trees are only part of our heritage and the source of 2,500 badly needed jobs.

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According to The Irish Times, a booklet published by trade union IMPACT covers the many issues that may arise from the sale of the harvesting rights, saying that visits to Irish forests are worth €270 million a year and that the “consequences of ceding control of Coillte or its assets” would be disproportionate to what “is likely to be a short-term budgetary injection.”

The Irish Government may be hard up for cash but at what cost - are the government really willing to sacrifice our heritage for the sake of a €600 million which may buy us one breath only to choke us on the next?

A demonstration in opposition of the sale will take place outside the Dáil at 5pm today with the vote taking place at 9pm. Hopefully, the vote will show that the Irish Government can see beyond the euro signs to the welfare of the people and the land that they are supposedly governing.

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