Coillte (; meaning "forests"/"woods") is a

state-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public owne ...

commercial forestry business in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

based in Newtownmountkennedy. Coillte manage approximately 7% of the country’s land, and operates three businesses - their core forestry business, a land solutions business, and a wood panel manufacturing business called 'Medite Smartply'.

Operation

The company was incorporated in December 1988 and commenced trading in January 1989 when it took over the forestry activities previously carried out by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Shares are held by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and

Minister for Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

on behalf of the

Irish Government The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The gover ...

. During 2016, the organisation had an average of 862 employees. The Coillte estate is 4,450 square kilometres of which 79% is forest; it manages over 50% of forested land in the country. In its 27 years of operation between 1989 and 2016, Coillte had: *Grown its forest and land estate from 396,000 hectares to over 440,000 hectares *Increased operating profits from a loss of €0.4 million to operating profits of €64.9 million (2016) *Grown turnover from €38.0 million to €287.7 million (2016) *Increased log sales from 1.5 million cubic metres to 1.6 million cubic metres (2016) According to the Coillte website, 20% of its estate is managed with

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...

as the primary objective. Other entities have however questioned Coillte's commercially focused practices and the amount of land afforded to native species.

Developments

In 2011, there was speculation that Coillte could be sold by the

Government of Ireland The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The govern ...

as part of cost-cutting measures. As of 2011, Coillte was also seeking to calculate the aggregate economic value of its 445,000ha of forest estate. In 2018 the organisation was reportedly criticised for payment and communication issues with some landowners.

References

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External links

Official website
Forest products companies of Ireland State-sponsored bodies of the Republic of Ireland