Two reports by independent forestry specialists were heavily critical of Coillte’s management of the plantations on Geraldine Corcoran’s lands in Ballingarry, Co Tipperary.

A 2018 report by forestry specialist Henry Phillips claimed that the management of the plantation left “a lot to be desired”.

While Phillips’ report – which was commissioned by Robinson O’Neill Solicitors, who represented Corcoran – found that the Sitka spruce plantations were of “average to excellent quality”, it noted that “the quality of the larch is poor, as is the quality of remaining ash and sycamore crops”.

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The report was also critical that trees infected with ash dieback had not been removed from adjoining roadside hedgerows when the infected crops were clear-felled in 2017.

The infected roadside ash represented an “ongoing source of infection for the remaining ash”, the report warned.

The report repeated Corcoran’s complaint that she had not been provided with any information on actual harvest volumes, the prices achieved or the purchaser of the timber from the plantation’s first thinning in 2016.

In addition, the report identified that there was no valid forest management plan (FMP) in place for the 8ha section planted in 1996.

It also observed that a gate into one field was not hung properly and was “tied with rope”.

“Overall, the general quality of management leaves a lot to be desired,” Phillips stated.

A report by Dermot Houlihan of Timberland Forestry in Galway compiled in March 2021 was even more critical of Coillte’s management of the Ballingarry plantation.

‘Completely neglected’

The report was scathing of Coillte’s management of a 1.8ha section of sycamore. Houlihan claimed that there appeared to be “no real interest in managing this potential crop for timber production”.

“This area hasn’t been thinned and has been completely neglected,” Houlihan said. He was equally critical of the handling of a 1.6ha section of ash that was not cleared in 2017 when the other ash was removed. However, by 2021 this area was heavily infected with ash dieback.

“Based on the advanced stage of the disease, it is unlikely that these trees were still healthy in 2017 when the diseased ash trees were being cleared from comp 2,” the report stated.

“This is another area that has been completely neglected,” Houlihan maintained.

“While the areas planted with Sitka spruce has been thinned and are very productive, the older areas of broadleaves and larch have been badly neglected,” the report stated in summary.

In addition, Houlihan’s findings on revenues from thinning operations broadly echoed those of Phillips three years earlier.

“In the case of the recent thinning of the Sitka spruce area, no details have been supplied to the owner [Corcoran] of the quantities of timber removed from her forest, the size categories, how many lorry loads, where the timber was sold, or what prices were obtained for her timber,” Houlihan said.

And in comments that mirror more recent events, Houlihan claimed that Corcoran had been “locked out of her own land” as only Coillte had keys to locks on the two entrances.

Meanwhile, a site assessment report by Coillte in 2023 was complimentary of the Sitka spruce plantations – with some described as “exceptional” crops – but it conceded that the diseased ash plantations needed to be cleared.

It also identified “a large amount of dumping of building rubble” on the farm and it recommended a “fencing and security plan” for both entrances.