Plans by Coillte to enter a joint venture arrangement with international private investment funds to support the purchase and planting of more than 50,000ha have been described as a “land grab” by Sligo-Leitrim TD Marian Harkin.

Harkin said the proposed partnership will inevitably drive more farmers off marginal land and negate the need to cull the suckler herd.

“This land grab, financed by very significant grant aid and single farm payments where there are entitlements on the land, will push prices way beyond the reach of active local farmers,” Harkin said.

“The steady trickle of outside investors planting parts of the northwest will become an avalanche.

“There will be no need to cull the suckler herd, these proposals will go a long way to achieve that,” she added.

Funding

Defending the plan, senior Coillte executives told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture that outside investors would be required to help fund the planting of up to 100,000ha of woodland by the State body over the next three decades. This level of land purchase and planting would cost in the region of €2bn, Coillte CEO Imelda Hurley told the committee.

It emerged during the hearings that up to 50,000ha may be purchased by foreign private investment funds such as the UK-based firm Gresham House. A tie-up with Coillte would enable these funds to benefit from the increased forestry premiums, while the State body could then manage their forestry estate.

However, these proposals have sparked serious reservations among farm organisations and politicians.

“Any State funding for the forestry sector should be farmer-centred, move away from the Sitka-spruce monoculture model and deliver the right trees in the right place,” the INHFA insisted.