Sir, - I refer to Coillte's proposal to purchase a majority stake in the Balcas Sawmilling Group.
Public ownership and management of wood processing industries, such as sawmilling, are usually confined to Third World countries and communist regimes where they are grossly mismanaged and rarely make a profit. They survive because they are a source of political patronage and because they have a monopoly of wood supply from state-owned forests. They have not survived, however, in the former Soviet Union where the entire wood processing industry has now been privatised, a trend opposite to that now proposed for Ireland.
Equally eccentric are Coillte's current activities in leasing to local authorities for the siting of megadumps land originally purchased by the State for forestry purposes. There are many reasons why this is a deplorable form of profit-making by a State forest enterprise but there are four which are of particular significance:
Firstly, the forest lands already leased or proposed for such purposes are often in elevated areas of exceptional scenic beauty with no history of industrial activity and where the probability of pollution of water resources is high.
Secondly, it is an activity which infringes Coillte's statutory obligation to care for the environment. The relevant section of the 1988 Forestry Act states that Coillte should conduct its business having "due regard to the environmental and amenity consequences of its operations".
Thirdly, such action delays for years the implementation of a national waste management strategy which gives the highest priority to waste reduction and recycling.
Fourthly, it is completely out of step with forestry practice within the European Union and elsewhere in the developed world.
The public forestry sector in Ireland has had an honourable and successful history and its forest operations, in so far as they are directed to the restoration and profitable management of a national forest estate, while exercising due care for the environment, should continue to have strong public support. The public forestry sector, however, should not have support for the current and proposed activities referred to above.
There is now an urgent need for the present Government, which has published a wholly admirable and detailed environmental policy statement, to reassert a policy framework for Coillte's commercial activities which will bring the agency back in line with best practice for public sector forestry comparable to that which prevails within the European Union. Such best practice would not include trading in megadump sites and sawmilling but would include a strong professional competence in environmental management and sustainable production of wood fibre which are the hallmarks of modern forestry practice at its best and which Coillte appears to be losing sight of. - Yours, etc.,
Laurence Roche, Professor Emeritus, University of Wales, Murroe, Co Limerick.