Save our Irish Forests from being sold

The Raven.

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Have you seen and heard a clear and unambiguous statement from the old government that the Coillte lands will be sold off or that it was even considered in the first place? Or are you just jumping to wild conclusion with absolutely no shred of evidence that any government, past or present, has considered selling Coillte?

A clear and unambiguous statement from the 'old government' would hardly be worth the paper it was written on, given the amount of lies and spin they have spouted. One has only got to look at the underhand way they have done things in their last days in office such as giving the green light to the Shell pipeline.

An Bord Snip Nua included Coillte in their list of disposable state assets. The following is an extract cited from the Report, Volume 1:

In addition, the Group has suggested exploring the following avenues which could provide once off receipts for the Exchequer:

• dispose of non-essential land/property holdings owned by the State Agencies;
• sell surplus Teagasc assets; and
• review the operations of Coillte with a view to realising optimal return through rationalisation, asset disposal and, possibly, privatisation.

http://www.iua.ie/documents/BordSnipvol1.pdf

Cited from Report, Volume 2:

In addition to the measures suggested, the Group is urging the D/AF&F to explore the following avenues that could provide once-off cash windfalls.
...

2. Review the operations of Coillte.
Coillte owns over one million acres of land, about 7% of the land cover of Ireland. Most of this acreage is forested and it accounts for about 70% of the forested land in the State. As well as managing its forests for commercial purposes, Coillte operates in a range of forestryrelated businesses: panel products, wood processing, farm forestry services, land development, forest nurseries and training and safety.

The Group recommends that the operations of Coillte be reviewed with a view to realising the optimal return through rationalisation, asset disposal and, possibly, privatisation.

3. Explore the scope to dispose of non-essential land/property holdings owned by the State agencies.

The Group agrees with the principle of the sale of surplus assets. The excuse that property/land prices are now too low to sell has little validity as in the foreseeable future property prices are unlikely to return to anywhere near the inflated levels of recent years.

http://www.finance.irlgov.ie/documents/pressreleases/2009/bl100vol2.pdf

A considerable amount of An Bord Snip Nua’s recommendations have been implemented. Full clarification is needed as regards Coillte. From my own past experience, getting certain information from Coillte has proved difficult. They are also exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

kippy

The Raven. wrote: »

A clear and unambiguous statement from the 'old government' would hardly be worth the paper it was written on, given the amount of lies and spin they have spouted. One has only got to look at the underhand way they have done things in their last days in office such as giving the green light to the Shell pipeline.

An Bord Snip Nua included Coillte in their list of disposable state assets. The following is an extract cited from the Report, Volume 1:



Cited from Report, Volume 2:



A considerable amount of An Bord Snip Nua’s recommendations have been implemented. Full clarification is needed as regards Coillte. From my own past experience, getting certain information from Coillte has proved difficult. They are also exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

I dont see any issue at all with the privatization of state entities such as Coillte. I do see issue with privatizing the ownership of the land. It is possible to make that seperation.
I HOPE we have learned from the Eircom debacle that privitising the company together with the critical infrastructure that they are responsible for is completely the wrong way to go

billbond4

I really dont understand what the big fuss here, Coillte is already a semi state company. So it is part owned by private companys/people already

_AVALANCHE_

This is back up for discussion next WK.

A MEMO recommending the sale of State assets will be considered by the Cabinet, possibly as early as next Tuesday, following agreement from the EU-IMF troika that a “sizeable” portion may be used for jobs stimulus.
Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin announced yesterday that there had been a breakthrough on this issue during discussions with the EU Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund as part of the latest review of Ireland’s €67.5 billion bailout programme.


Mr Howlin said the troika had moved from a position where it had insisted the funds could be used only to reduce the country’s debts to a position where it agreed that a portion could be used to create employment.
“We made progress in that regard. We will have sizeable quantities of money available from assets that we can apply to new jobs,” he said during a joint conference with Minister for Finance Michael Noonan on the outcome of the review.


At a later press conference, the EU Commission seemed to play down the concession. Its head of mission Istvan Szekely said plans had to be finalised about the use of cash from the sale of State assets.
“We would like to understand their plans for asset sales and I understand this is in the process,” he said.
Government sources insisted last night that Mr Howlin’s comments had been approved by the troika beforehand. While Mr Howlin refused to be drawn on the extent of asset sales, or the proportion to be used to fund jobs, it is understood the more the Government sells, the higher the proportion of funds available for jobs creation.


In its programme the Government set an upper threshold of €2 billion but now looks more likely to approve more than €3 billion in disposals, including part of ESB. A report prepared by a special group included Dublin Port, shares in Aer Lingus, and parts of Bord Gáis and Coillte in its list of recommendations.


The troika, in its summation, said the Government has met the terms of the €67.5 billion programme so far but that the country faced “considerable challenges” and must implement policy measures.
The Government also claimed significant progress with the troika on the contentious €30.6 billion of promissory notes, or State IOUs, which are being used to fund the cost of Anglo Irish Bank and INBS. A further €16.8 billion in interest must be paid on the loan.
Mr Noonan last night described the promissory notes, with their punitive interest rates, as “abominable”. He said the troika would present a position paper by the end of February.


“What we are working on is an alternative to the promissory note that will reduce the costs to Ireland,” he said. A source said it would mean an extension of the term or a drop in interest rates, or both.
A number of deadlines for the introduction of new legislation and plans for the banking sector have been deferred.


Legislation to reform the personal insolvency regime and a restructuring plan for Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) have been deferred until the end of April, with ILP recapitalisation put back to June.
Stress-testing of Irish banks (the PCAR) has also been deferred from March to November.


The troika highlighted challenges including the weaknesses of domestic demand, high unemployment and an economic slowdown in some of the main trading partners.


As a result, its growth forecasts for the economy had been cut from 1 per cent to 0.5 per cent – just over a third of the Government’s forecast. It still expects the 8.6 per cent budget deficit for 2012 to be met.
Mr Noonan, for his part, said there was no reason to resile from the Government’s own growth prediction.


The ECB again ruled out forcing losses on senior unsecured and unguaranteed bondholders as it would damage confidence in the Irish banking system and could be “very costly”. Anglo is due to repay a €1.25 billion senior unsecured unguaranteed bond next Wednesday.
Mr Noonan said the fiscal consolidation targets had been met by a significant margin, in tandem with the first return to growth in 2011 for three years.


The troika said the Government had delivered a budget deficit of 10 per cent for 2011, significantly ahead of programme targets.
Mr Howlin said the troika was sensitive about the €5 billion in the National Pension Reserve Fund and regarded it, in some sense, as “collateral”. This signalled that some or all of this fund may not be available for Government programmes.


Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath said the real economic test was the number of people on the Live Register. Sinn Féin’s Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said the latest review showed austerity was not working as a policy.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showp...ostcount=57...

from this Thread.