Coillte - Gresham deal criticism reaches county chamber

Criticism of the proposed partnership between Irish forestry agency Coillte and UK asset management company Gresham House reached Cavan County Council last week.

Three local elected representations tabled motions looking to debate the potential ramifications of the controversial deal, which some critics have labelled a “land grab”.

Last month Gresham House announced details of a €200 million Irish forest fund, and plans to plant an average of 700 hectares of new forests over the next five years.

The resulting deal could see up to 123,000 acres of land and forest sold to the British investor.

Coillte has pledged to plant 10,000 hectares of new forests by 2050. The Gresham House agreement will account for just 3.5% of this in terms of new forests.

The Gresham House fund is supported by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), managed and controlled by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

Farmers representative and environmental groups have hit out against the proposed deal, some arguing that the Government should be the primary financial backer rather than a foreign-based investment fund.

Coillte has defended the deal, claiming the €200 million in funding is required for the semi-state agency to complete its planting strategy.

At the February council meeting Aontú’s Sarah O’Reilly asked that the council request “further protections” for family farms by writing to the Minister for Agriculture to demand that he “urgently intervene” and prevent Coillte from entering the joint venture arrangement with Gresham House.

Independent Brendan Fay also asked that the local authority write to the same minister as well as Minister for State Pippa Hackett to outline that the proposed deal is “not in the best interest” of the people of Ireland. He asked that, if the motion receives backing, it would be circulated in time to seek support from other councils around Ireland.

Lastly, Cathaoirleach and Fianna Fáil councillor John Paul Feeley requested that Minister McConalogue simply “review” the relationship between Coillte and Gresham House and also the “proper control of commercial afforestation”.

Cllr Feeley, before the debate took place, delivered a scathing assessment of the management of commercial forestry in Ireland on foot of a reply from Minister McConalogue’s office regarding the buffer zones for planting of trees adjacent to ESB powerlines.

The council previously discussed the damage falling trees had caused, and how locals particularly living in the rural west of the county had been repeatedly discommoded, at times for days on end, by power cuts caused by downed lines.

He said he was “not aware” of anywhere where trees were being cut down as per regulations, and invited anyone from the department to come visit west Cavan to see firsthand and “carry out a proper inspection” of the problem he claims exists.

Aontú’s Cllr O’Reilly’s concern was that Gresham House could be in a position to buy up over a hundred thousand acres of rural land to help Coillte meet “climate targets”.

It would, she said, have a “huge impact” on land prices and on the ability of local farmers to buy plots of land in future.

Of further concern were reports that the investment fund may be in a position to draw down substantial grants, as well as potentially single farm payments.

“This agreement will price local family farmers out of the market, and there is a credible fear that we’re leaving the door open to a potential situation where, years down the line, no farmer in a given village will own any of the land. We are likely to see situations where a farmer can’t expand their holding due to them being fenced in to their existing farm and surrounded on all sides by forestry.

“Given that the incomes of farmers have been reduced so significantly, it is appalling the Government did not seek to roll out this particular project through farmers in order to ensure that the income generated accrued to them. Irish farmers must be the vehicle of afforestation here. It is also vital that carbon credits accrued from planting should be for the benefit of farmers as well.”

She accused the government of being unclear regarding much of the detail behind the deal.

“Even from an environmental perspective - why are we selling already existing Irish trees to the British, how is that going to help the environment? This plan needs to be stalled and scrutinised, and it’s for that reason that I’m bringing this motion before this Council.”

Cllr Fay said the deal changed the dynamic whereby Coillte would change from “landlords to tenants”.

He too feared a hike in land prices, and asked why the government couldn’t just encourage farmers in Ireland to plant one per cent of their own holdings and pay them instead.

He pointed out that “serial objectors” to tree felling had caused a backlog in the system.

Replying to all, as well as giving his own view, Cllr Feeley said some in the council had been raising issues around afforestation for the past decade. He was speaking as someone living in west Cavan whose home area was already “surrounded by trees”.

“I don’t really care about trees owned by Coillte, or Mr Murphy from Cashel, or an entity registered in the IFI,” he said, noting that his primary issue was with the long-term damage afforestation did to an area.

“I welcome the new interest to this debate,” he exclaimed, again saying that regulations are not being enforced, and that planting too close to roads or other essential infrastructure was being affected by felling.

He said communities are being slowly “killed off” by commercial planting, before turning on how forestry companies often managed to skirt the need for Environmental Impact Assessments by planting just short of the 50 hectare limit.

He said the problem was not with one or two applications but rather the “cumulative” affect afforestation was having now, and into the future.

Fine Gael’s TP O’Reilly accepted there was a need for the government to reach climate targets. But he could see how the deal between Gresham House and Coillte would was “not a good idea” when the interests of farmers going forward were taken into account.

This opinion was shared by fellow party member Peter McVitty too. “It’s the young farmer that’s going to be in trouble.”

Sinn Féin’s Paddy McDonald meanwhile stated how the Irish had fought for independence for 800 years to “get land off the British and now we’re selling it back to them”.

Cllr Feeley though pointed out there was already plenty of land in Cavan and Ireland “sold to British companies” for planting.

Acknowledging that the deal between Gresham and Coillte had already been struck, Cllr Feeley then asked: “Can anything be done?”

“We’re always the best boys in Europe,” he said of Ireland’s image, but stated that it was time that the country’s European representatives “need to step up for Ireland” and help block the agreement.

Independent Shane P. O’Reilly said the “elephant in the room” was the debate around climate change and how afforestation was being promoted as a “great fix”.

“This in the whole needs to be looked at,” he said, especially where there were reports calling for a 30 per cent cut in the national herd number.

Cllr Fay said that an acre of agricultural land in Cavan was currently selling at around €9,000 an acre. Once Gresham House entered the market he could see that increase to above €20,000.

“People feel very strongly about this,” he said, noting how details of the deal only came to light after probing by TD Michael Fitzmaurice, who Cllr Feeley described as being “one of the biggest” proponents of afforestation but “not the affect it is having”.

“I hope this is a wake-up call,” Cllr Feeley said to his fellow members at the conclusion of the debate.