In November of last year the Social Welfare office on the Navan Road was dotted with twenty-somethings inclined to creative aspirations spurred by the whip of the dole queue. Saturated with supposed gloom to look forward to, these young people chose to explore the opportunities put upon them. We are perhaps still waiting for the Commitments cinema moment to encapsulate the mood of a nation, though the recession-induced creativity from which that film was spawned is doing similar things in the depths of this downturn. For that group of young people spoken to in the signing-on queue on the second Wednesday of the month back in November things have changed.
Young people across every strand of society have effectively been afforded two options. The easy option (for those without obligations) is to leave; with the road less travelled being the one at home. For those who stay, finding a means or reason to hang about can be difficult but in that difficulty there germinates an artistry and enterprise that bodes well for this country’s future. With the improving weather, and buoyed by a thorough spring clean in Dáil Eireann, it seems a there is an optimism about the air now, perhaps only a glimmer yet, but it does seem to be there.
A return to the bright and airy social welfare office on the Navan Road finds that an improvement in circumstances, albeit not necessarily a financial one. Back in November, they who were supposed to have little to do were investing time and energy into personal pursuits which are now yielding reward. Rather than continue to waste their educations in welfare lines, these particular twenty-something graduates have seen some fruition to the creative endeavours induced on them.
Graduate architect Robin Jardine had been experimenting with cider-making in November, deciding to take a sabbatical from a career in architecture for the time being. Since then the cider has matured, and there are but four or five bottles left of the last batch remaining. He took the lack of jobs in a profession with 70% unemployment as an opportunity to see if making cider was something he could do. He collected wine and beer bottles, designed and made three different labels for each different cider and distributed them amongst his friends and family. He has gone on to do a two-month apprenticeship with cider maker David Llewellyn at Lusk in north County Dublin. He still sees cider as more of a hobby than enterprise, though if circumstance were different he says he may reconsider.
Carl Giffney is a recent NCAD graduate, and he along with Ruth Lyons have been taking part in the restoration of 18th Century Clonearl House on the Westmeath-Offally border in return for which they are afforded a studio base from where they can work. Eileen Hanlon owns the property and has a vision to restore it and set up a variety of creative uses occupied in the complex of buildings on site. She proposes that the former workshop, brewhouse and painthouse could all be re-imagined as creative spaces, artisan workshops, forges, photographers’ or artists’ studios and even a return to brewing. Indeed Robin Jardine has considered the possibility of using the recently planted Clonearl orchard for his next batch of cider.
For those others spoken to last November not quite as lent to artisan pursuits, though no less creative ones, many of their situations have also changed for the better. Roisín Grimes will not be attending today. She had previously been volunteering with Citywise in Ballymun between sending out cvs, she still visits but has since been accepted and begun a full-time masters degree in primary school teaching. Kieran Flood had also been forced to volunteer to occupy time between job rejections. He spent some time learning his profession with the Irish Wildlife Trust but is expecting March to be his last visit to the Navan Road welfare office for quite a while as he has been commissioned by the Trust to undertake broadened reports on the declining newt population of Ireland.
Since signing-on day in the Navan Road Social Welfare office last November and this week in mid-March, currents statistics say that in the region of 20,000 young people will have emigrated. That is a lot of wasted talent. By some good grace though, some are choosing (or even trying) to stay and exploring all pipedreams and opportunities as they ‘emerge’ as adults. In this post-election optimism, the mess remains though now there appears some semblance of hope where young people clutch at straws yielding all sorts of possibility.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Fears over sale of Irish forests
Fears over another Government give away of Ireland’s precious natural resources haven’t gone with Fianna Fáil’s departure from public power. With profits from oil, gas and mineral rights having already been bizarrely offloaded by successive governments, it is now the turn of our forest holdings to be offered into the grabbing hands of foreign investment companies. Their counterparts in Britain were forced into an embarrassing u-turn on the very same issue, and now our incoming government are leading us to believe that they will not be so foolish in taking the reins from their perpetually dishonest predecessors.
Coillte’s value is estimated to be in excess of €1.2bn; a figure arrived at largely down to the value of the land rather than the trees and amounts to 7% of land in the State. The sale of Coillte land will provide much needed funds to a coalition inheriting a cash-strapped Department of Finance, but is considered ill advised by many professionals in the environment sector. It is the International Forestry Fund, chaired by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern who are believed to be the first in line of foreign investors waiting to snap up the valuable Irish territory. The company are based in Switzerland and are principally financed by the Irish Forestry Fund and Helvetica Wealth AG of Switzerland who use their base in Liechtenstein and Switzerland as a marketing ploy to attract investors with the benefits of offshore bank accounts. The China Investment Corporation are also said to have expressed an interest.
UCD economist Colm McCarthy has once already recommended to the Government that Coillte be sold to private companies, along with many other important and valuable state assets. His imminent follow-up report is expected to say the very same to the newly formed coalition.
7% of land in the state is equivalent to twice the size of County Meath, so the prospect of our Government giving over so much to foreign investment companies is perhaps understandably worrying for Irish citizens already embarrassed into offering our sovereignty to Brussels and Berlin. The sale of semi-state bodies did feature prominently during the general election campaign with Labour and Fine Gael both committing to the retention of Irish forests by the State. However, outgoing Energy Minister Pat Carey’s eleventh hour grant of permission to Shell to lay the last of the Corrib gas line leaves you wondering what other surprises Fianna Fáil have left for their successors.
Andrew St Ledger, an Environment Pillar representative for the NGO CELT (Centre for Environmental Learning and Training) and the Woodland League, has been trying to raise awareness on the issue for seven years now. As well as his concerns over the potential sale of Coillte lands, he also has issue with the “nefarious practices” of the semi-state body itself, describing their activities as “the singular most destructive activity on the Irish Environment.” They employ unsustainable practices such as “clearfelling and chemical applications, yet have been protected by vested interests for many years as the Forestry Industry is run by the Pension fund companies,” he said.
St Ledger says there are a number of vested interests at work here, not least of which are the many thousands of people who have invested in the last six forestry funds whole heartedly believing that they were engaging in environmentally sound activity. “It is understandably difficult for them to accept the truth about what their money has been used for,” he said. Using tree farms of chemically dependent trees is a global phenomenon and said to be the primary activity of the International Forestry Fund. Furthermore, what is critical to greedy investment company plans in attaining these woodland assets are mining rights and the emerging, is the emerging, and extremely lucrative, carbon trading market.
When Coillte was set up in the early 90s, it conducted a geological survey of the land underneath the forests. The mineral deposits beneath the trees are understood to be extremely valuable. Coillte are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and as such only a handful of people have ever seen the report; among those people though is the Finance Minister, an office the current chair of the International Forestry Fund held at the time of the survey. In the office of Taoiseach, Mr Ahern would also have been the person charged with appointing most of the directors to the board of Coillte.
The sell-off or Ireland’s resources has been a common trend in Fianna Fáil-led governments and with the former Taoiseach himself. Deals made between Charles Haughey’s government and multinational oil companies means all wealth raised from oil or gas in Ireland leaves it. In 1987 corrupt Minister Ray Burke bizarrely changed the law to reduce the State’s share in offshore oil and gas from 50% to zero and abolished royalties, and then in 1992 Finance Minister Bertie Ahern reduced the tax rate for profits made from the sale of these resources from 50% to 25% while the international average stands at around 68%. And finally, Pat Carey’s signing off of the Corrib gas line on Election Day marked what many considered one last act of treason in giving the go ahead for Shell to build infrastructure that will pump gas from the west coast to their interconnectors in Britain.
The outgoing Government actions on this issue concerned the setting of a Review Group on State Assets, under the stewardship of an Bord Snip Nua author Colm McCarthy, to examine precisely what the value of our state companies are. Coillte is amongst the companies that the group is examining. The group's work is not yet completed, therefore it now ought to be for the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition Government to examine the findings and determine a course of action.
Fine Gael’s position on the matter isn’t entirely clear however. Agriculture spokesperson Andrew Doyle has said they don’t want to sell the forests. “Our vital national resources are not up for sale. National resources like forestry, agriculture and marine resources are held in trust for all the people of Ireland,” he said. Meanwhile his leader, and Taoiseach, Enda Kenny proposes to sell “non-strategic” State Assets and has been unspecific in explaining what exactly what that means.
During their time with the Environment and Energy portfolios in Government, the Green Party regularly stated that it made neither economic nor strategic sense to sell off state assets such as Coillte, and they saw it as critical in the evolution of the ‘Green’ Economy in terms of the biomass energy and environmental sectors and held the belief that state ownership was the best means to realise the ambition. The manner in which they were bullied throughout their term in office however did not see them command significant authority on the matter – particularly in regard to their capitulation in their ambitions to do with the ‘Shell to Sea’ campaign in Mayo.
As the General Election loomed at the end of January, Coillte invited tenders from economists to provide an economic evaluation of the public goods provided by their forest estate of 445,000 ha throughout Ireland. Spokesperson for Coillte, Tom Byrne explains that the purpose of the tender is simply part of the “new understanding behind the management of large areas of lands and ecosystems” in their stewardship. As to the timing of the notice of invitation to tender in the dying days of the Fianna Fáil-led government, with speculation over the privatisation of Irish forests and Pat Carey’s last gasp decision making, he said it was “purely coincidental”.
In response to allegations, the International Forestry Fund, as mentioned chaired by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern were quick to “unequivocally” say that they held no interest in acquiring any of the assets of Coillte. The company already operates commercial forests in Ireland and Scotland and is currently acquiring forest lands in Central America in which spokesperson Paul Brosnan claimed they are operating in line with international standards despite assertions to the contrary. They are adamant that their forestry assets are “managed in accordance with best forestry practice in a socially responsible manner,” they say they don’t engage in the monoculture or chemical fertilizers practices that they are widely accused of.
They also denied that they would even be interested in Coillte lands if indeed they were to become available which is rather a bizarre stance from a commercial entity whose primary concern is the forestry industry and even more bizarre considering that they did express an interest in buying Coillte in January of last year.
At the time of writing, Fine Gael had yet to say what obligations exactly Fianna Fáil had tied them into aside from the obvious financial targets agreed with those on mainland Europe, but as we are well aware, political promises are regularly found broken in election aftermaths.
Coillte’s value is estimated to be in excess of €1.2bn; a figure arrived at largely down to the value of the land rather than the trees and amounts to 7% of land in the State. The sale of Coillte land will provide much needed funds to a coalition inheriting a cash-strapped Department of Finance, but is considered ill advised by many professionals in the environment sector. It is the International Forestry Fund, chaired by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern who are believed to be the first in line of foreign investors waiting to snap up the valuable Irish territory. The company are based in Switzerland and are principally financed by the Irish Forestry Fund and Helvetica Wealth AG of Switzerland who use their base in Liechtenstein and Switzerland as a marketing ploy to attract investors with the benefits of offshore bank accounts. The China Investment Corporation are also said to have expressed an interest.
UCD economist Colm McCarthy has once already recommended to the Government that Coillte be sold to private companies, along with many other important and valuable state assets. His imminent follow-up report is expected to say the very same to the newly formed coalition.
7% of land in the state is equivalent to twice the size of County Meath, so the prospect of our Government giving over so much to foreign investment companies is perhaps understandably worrying for Irish citizens already embarrassed into offering our sovereignty to Brussels and Berlin. The sale of semi-state bodies did feature prominently during the general election campaign with Labour and Fine Gael both committing to the retention of Irish forests by the State. However, outgoing Energy Minister Pat Carey’s eleventh hour grant of permission to Shell to lay the last of the Corrib gas line leaves you wondering what other surprises Fianna Fáil have left for their successors.
Andrew St Ledger, an Environment Pillar representative for the NGO CELT (Centre for Environmental Learning and Training) and the Woodland League, has been trying to raise awareness on the issue for seven years now. As well as his concerns over the potential sale of Coillte lands, he also has issue with the “nefarious practices” of the semi-state body itself, describing their activities as “the singular most destructive activity on the Irish Environment.” They employ unsustainable practices such as “clearfelling and chemical applications, yet have been protected by vested interests for many years as the Forestry Industry is run by the Pension fund companies,” he said.
St Ledger says there are a number of vested interests at work here, not least of which are the many thousands of people who have invested in the last six forestry funds whole heartedly believing that they were engaging in environmentally sound activity. “It is understandably difficult for them to accept the truth about what their money has been used for,” he said. Using tree farms of chemically dependent trees is a global phenomenon and said to be the primary activity of the International Forestry Fund. Furthermore, what is critical to greedy investment company plans in attaining these woodland assets are mining rights and the emerging, is the emerging, and extremely lucrative, carbon trading market.
When Coillte was set up in the early 90s, it conducted a geological survey of the land underneath the forests. The mineral deposits beneath the trees are understood to be extremely valuable. Coillte are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and as such only a handful of people have ever seen the report; among those people though is the Finance Minister, an office the current chair of the International Forestry Fund held at the time of the survey. In the office of Taoiseach, Mr Ahern would also have been the person charged with appointing most of the directors to the board of Coillte.
The sell-off or Ireland’s resources has been a common trend in Fianna Fáil-led governments and with the former Taoiseach himself. Deals made between Charles Haughey’s government and multinational oil companies means all wealth raised from oil or gas in Ireland leaves it. In 1987 corrupt Minister Ray Burke bizarrely changed the law to reduce the State’s share in offshore oil and gas from 50% to zero and abolished royalties, and then in 1992 Finance Minister Bertie Ahern reduced the tax rate for profits made from the sale of these resources from 50% to 25% while the international average stands at around 68%. And finally, Pat Carey’s signing off of the Corrib gas line on Election Day marked what many considered one last act of treason in giving the go ahead for Shell to build infrastructure that will pump gas from the west coast to their interconnectors in Britain.
The outgoing Government actions on this issue concerned the setting of a Review Group on State Assets, under the stewardship of an Bord Snip Nua author Colm McCarthy, to examine precisely what the value of our state companies are. Coillte is amongst the companies that the group is examining. The group's work is not yet completed, therefore it now ought to be for the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition Government to examine the findings and determine a course of action.
Fine Gael’s position on the matter isn’t entirely clear however. Agriculture spokesperson Andrew Doyle has said they don’t want to sell the forests. “Our vital national resources are not up for sale. National resources like forestry, agriculture and marine resources are held in trust for all the people of Ireland,” he said. Meanwhile his leader, and Taoiseach, Enda Kenny proposes to sell “non-strategic” State Assets and has been unspecific in explaining what exactly what that means.
During their time with the Environment and Energy portfolios in Government, the Green Party regularly stated that it made neither economic nor strategic sense to sell off state assets such as Coillte, and they saw it as critical in the evolution of the ‘Green’ Economy in terms of the biomass energy and environmental sectors and held the belief that state ownership was the best means to realise the ambition. The manner in which they were bullied throughout their term in office however did not see them command significant authority on the matter – particularly in regard to their capitulation in their ambitions to do with the ‘Shell to Sea’ campaign in Mayo.
As the General Election loomed at the end of January, Coillte invited tenders from economists to provide an economic evaluation of the public goods provided by their forest estate of 445,000 ha throughout Ireland. Spokesperson for Coillte, Tom Byrne explains that the purpose of the tender is simply part of the “new understanding behind the management of large areas of lands and ecosystems” in their stewardship. As to the timing of the notice of invitation to tender in the dying days of the Fianna Fáil-led government, with speculation over the privatisation of Irish forests and Pat Carey’s last gasp decision making, he said it was “purely coincidental”.
In response to allegations, the International Forestry Fund, as mentioned chaired by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern were quick to “unequivocally” say that they held no interest in acquiring any of the assets of Coillte. The company already operates commercial forests in Ireland and Scotland and is currently acquiring forest lands in Central America in which spokesperson Paul Brosnan claimed they are operating in line with international standards despite assertions to the contrary. They are adamant that their forestry assets are “managed in accordance with best forestry practice in a socially responsible manner,” they say they don’t engage in the monoculture or chemical fertilizers practices that they are widely accused of.
They also denied that they would even be interested in Coillte lands if indeed they were to become available which is rather a bizarre stance from a commercial entity whose primary concern is the forestry industry and even more bizarre considering that they did express an interest in buying Coillte in January of last year.
At the time of writing, Fine Gael had yet to say what obligations exactly Fianna Fáil had tied them into aside from the obvious financial targets agreed with those on mainland Europe, but as we are well aware, political promises are regularly found broken in election aftermaths.
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