I was not surprised to hear this recently, considering burlington bertie did some devious stuff regarding coilte.
Considering the historical overtones regarding british occupation and land, I find this particular deal a bit repulsive to be honest. The fact that our land will be sold off to another country makes me mad.
I remember one time years ago walking along our coastline in Cork, which resulted in myself,wife and 2 children being asked to leave the coastline as some German owned the land I was walking on.........I told him to feck off
I suppose eamon will be having a wet dream over this green target initiative.
And it is a lie that what the government/ Coillte/ any investment firm does with forestry is green. They pay people utterly crap wages to plant in hundreds of spruce by hand, an unbelievable number expected to be done per hour, people chasing bonuses to make a liveable wage and outside planting season operatives are expected to distribute a daily amount of herbicide on planted land. They get shyte protective gear, and daily quotas of herbicide that is so much that some operatives just tip it away. The amount of nitrogen flow off from forestry into waterways is also huge, causing eutrophication and poisoning the water. Global corporations working in Irish cities are "off setting their carbon footprint" by investing in monoculture plantations in the less wealthy parts of the country that destroy the environment. It's all bollox.
Thinking out loud, and trying to be occasionally less wrong...
About coillete… “ Established in 1989, Coillte is proud to be the custodian of 440,000 hectares or 7% of Ireland’s land.” so that they can sell off 1/4 of it?
Why do they think an asset management company will be a better custodian of it?
2 weeks ago the farmer’s journal published that Gresham were buying 1,100 acres for 5.5 million so going by those figures this 123,000 acres would benefit coillte to the tune of over half a billion, yet in the news section of their website they are bragging about a 25million green fund.
kadman wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:32 pm
I remember one time years ago walking along our coastline in Cork, which resulted in myself,wife and 2 children being asked to leave the coastline as some German owned the land I was walking on.........I told him to feck off
Coillte was set up as custodians of land "for the Irish people".......not for hedge funds.
I dont know whether its been finalised......some say contracts were signed...I dont know. Selling off our land has so many bad vibes about it. Are we going back in time??
kadman wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 3:03 pm
Coillte was set up as custodians of land "for the Irish people".......not for hedge funds.
I dont know whether its been finalised......some say contracts were signed...I dont know. Selling off our land has so many bad vibes about it. Are we going back in time??
There was talk of this before during the bailout if I remember correctly and was canned. Cowboys.
Sure won't we need all the land to build the 62,000 housing units per annum - it has risen by 2,000 per annum since the morning news bulletins and at that rate of increase we won't have any land left for trees.
Wonder what way the Grisham fund benefit from holding this land ? Future green carbon credits or offsets for corporate green washing ?
Sorry reason I say this is the land itself I assume is fairly rough and wouldn't be used for anything other than growing trees so would it be eventually turned into wind or solar to get a return back on it ? How will they make money out of it is what I'm basically asking.
KHD wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 3:36 pm
Wonder what way the Grisham fund benefit from holding this land ? Future green carbon credits or offsets for corporate green washing ?
Sorry reason I say this is the land itself I assume is fairly rough and wouldn't be used for anything other than growing trees so would it be eventually turned into wind or solar to get a return back on it ? How will they make money out of it is what I'm basically asking.
If the value of the land continually appreciates they never actually have to sell to make a profit, which it looks like will happen. Considering the rate inflation will be for the next few years investment funds are keen to get their hands on real world assets would be my guess.
knownunknown wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 3:51 pm
If the value of the land continually appreciates they never actually have to sell to make a profit, which it looks like will happen. Considering the rate inflation will be for the next few years investment funds are keen to get their hands on real world assets would be my guess.
If they are just going to buy it to make money on timber it really makes a mockery of Coillte as a semi state company. A couple of people in it need to be told to clear off their desks.
knownunknown wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 3:51 pm
If the value of the land continually appreciates they never actually have to sell to make a profit, which it looks like will happen. Considering the rate inflation will be for the next few years investment funds are keen to get their hands on real world assets would be my guess.
Real world assets is my bet too, and the people we elect to TEMPORARILY serve us somehow think they have the right to sell almost 2% of Ireland to foreign investors. Why don't they go on ahead and sell our main deep water harbours and port infrastructure to...uh I dunno, the Chinese, who seem to like buying up that kind of real world stuff.
Has to be stopped. These people are briefly servants of the people and time is up for these upstart servants.
Thinking out loud, and trying to be occasionally less wrong...
isha wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 4:12 pm
Real world assets is my bet too, and the people we elect to TEMPORARILY serve us somehow think they have the right to sell almost 2% of Ireland to foreign investors. Why don't they go on ahead and sell our main deep water harbours and port infrastructure to...uh I dunno, the Chinese, who seem to like buying up that kind of real world stuff.
Has to be stopped. These people are briefly servants of the people and time is up for these upstart servants.
That's fighting talk but who do we replace the present lot with? Is there anything to be said for encouraging poorly paid politicians from third world countries to move here?
KHD wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 3:36 pm
Wonder what way the Grisham fund benefit from holding this land ? Future green carbon credits or offsets for corporate green washing ?
Sorry reason I say this is the land itself I assume is fairly rough and wouldn't be used for anything other than growing trees so would it be eventually turned into wind or solar to get a return back on it ? How will they make money out of it is what I'm basically asking.
It's the carbon credits/figures for the state,idea being state won't have to cover cost of replanting after clearfall....more cynical call this 'green-washing'
Watch now,as these investment firms take the quick buck and make an utter balls of managing it,as yet again Irish governments roll over to lobby interests at expense of the interst of Irish public
"Celtic jerseys are not for second best, they don't shrink to fit inferior players." - Jock Stein
Setanta wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 5:41 pm
It's the carbon credits/figures for the state,idea being state won't have to cover cost of replanting after clearfall....more cynical call this 'green-washing'
Watch now,as these investment firms take the quick buck and make an utter balls of managing it,as yet again Irish governments roll over to lobby interests at expense of the interst of Irish public
The more I think about this the more angry I get over it. Nothing on RTE about it, if it wasn't for kadman posting it I'd be none the wiser. A state forestry company that has no interest in planting or managing their own forests. Only in feckin Ireland.
And you'd wonder too if the harvested wood will be going out of the country at the expense of local saw mills and the trees being planted will come from overseas exclusively at the expense of local growers. I remember buying a couple of hundred trees off them a few years ago and checking most of the origins of the "native" trees most of them were grown in the Netherlands.
KHD wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 6:27 pm
The more I think about this the more angry I get over it. Nothing on RTE about it, if it wasn't for kadman posting it I'd be none the wiser. A state forestry company that has no interest in planting or managing their own forests. Only in feckin Ireland.
It was well flagged with weeks,and shouldn't come as a suprise to anyone,with a government that wants to privatise everything,that they would flog off state assets for a quick buck....wouldn't be surprised if/when it comes out either present or ex TDs/ministers end up as lobbyists for this investment firm
what David Irvine said about the DUP,tends to ring true about politicians on rest of the island
These people are not to be trusted, their interest does not lie in Northern Ireland, their interest is self-interest."
"Celtic jerseys are not for second best, they don't shrink to fit inferior players." - Jock Stein
Del.Monte wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 3:34 pm
Sure won't we need all the land to build the 62,000 housing units per annum - it has risen by 2,000 per annum since the morning news bulletins and at that rate of increase we won't have any land left for trees.
Del.Monte wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 5:08 pm
That's fighting talk but who do we replace the present lot with? Is there anything to be said for encouraging poorly paid politicians from third world countries to move here?
We've already got third rate politicians on first rate wages. Time to kick them to the curb.
Some politicians were trying to feather their own nests years ago on the Coillte angle, must be 10 years ago or more. And as the custodians of the land and forestry for , US the people, we dont get to say a word. Its not coillte's property, its the peoples.
Ahern-linked firm wants Coillte broken up and sold
The forestry company that has former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern among its senior executives, made a submission to the Government's review calling for the break-up of Coillte and greater support for the entire sector.
IFS Asset Managers, which appointed Mr Ahern as chairman of its International Forestry Fund in 2009, said the function of Coillte needed to be urgently examined.
"Consideration should be given to moving all non-core assets out of Coillte," it added.
"The other business elements of Coillte should be broken out into standalone businesses operating independently and allowed to develop aggressively on behalf of the State," it said.
