Just listening to an interview with Simon Coveney on Newstalk. Apparently there is no question of selling Coillte land nor of reducing public access to the forests! What is being considered is the possibility of selling "future" crops and also other ways of making the land more profitable!
Interesting!
P.S. This is an open forum please keep replies to this thread "civil"!
Bertie set the wheels in motion for the sale of Coillte when he was in power and will make a fortune if Coillte is sold off privately.
Those at the top of Coillte have no interest/will/knowledge of how to make more profits from the land, I feel its only a matter of time before it's broken up and sold... Sure the government are looking for someone to produce a valuation of the lands! http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/sh...x?ID=JAN196415
Mr Ping was telling me at the Grand Dictators meeting on his way home to China the other day , that he had already bought it and I could have Djouce when hes finished ..he said I could have a couple of trees to hang the backstabbers out of , if I wanted. now that would be poetic !
Seriously though, I believe they'll sell it, i kinda think they have to and all fingers are pointing at it !
They could sell Coillte as an operating company and the government should retain ownership of the land. They can rent the land to Coillte and any other operator who would like to plant trees and provide access for recreational use, mtbr's etc. Coilte would be unable to do an asset strip, the buyers of Eircom tokk a big dividend, saddle the company with a pile of debt and the disappeared with the loot, a repitition of this has to be avoided at all costs...
Sooner they sell it the better in my eyes. As soon as a company with a will to make some money takes control they'll see the possibility for revenue on a monthly basis from mountain biking. Coiltes only plan for revenue generation seems to be plant some trees and wait 30 years to harvest them. Anyone who was clued in would have some buildings in the likes of balinastoe etc that could be rented to a bike shop, a coffe shop and some sort of changing facilities. They could push the boat out and put in a car park, I know I'd pay a couple of euro to make sure my car wasn't going to be broken into when I rode my bike. The company is backwards and has no interest in trying to further its self or be in any way dynamic. Typical unionised civil service bull****. I know were all biased about how biking is amazing and can bring so much to an area but all you have to do is look at the figures from Wales, Scotland and New Zealand. They all show that biking is a sustainable source of income for an area.
i tell you this is some funny shi t..
I had a very long conversation with a man tonight in the Superstore, he is setting up business in Wexford.
He is in talks with Bord Failte, theres a heap of funding available from Europe to develop tourism in Ireland, guess who is holding the show up..
Coillte, an archaic, decrepit organisation ! They haven't a clue.
You are dead right Al, but consider the Blast, minimal impact on the land, huge impact on the locale though, Wicklow Tourism were on to us, they can't believe Coillte banned us from running the Event.
What..stop an event that brings 300 competitors and their supporters into one of the smallest Counties in Ireland ?
I think I will have to ring Enda.
I think selling off Coillte will be a good thing, trees that produce money every 30 years comapred to people who produce money, daily, weekly, monthly, annually...whats wrong with this ?
Coillte are complete gob****es, they tie themselves up in red tape and confusion and our friends on the Offroad commission support them.
Feckin eejits !!
I'd like to know if Wicklow tourism and Wicklow county council know about Coillte's refusal to give permits for MTB events in the county?
According to Coillte's website:
While recognising its role in the rural community, Coillte does not have
a primary or lead role in the provision of tourism facilities in its forests,
but will facilitate such developments within partnership arrangements
And I believe local councils fund recreation facilities, so if we want car parks and showers etc at trail centre's then Wicklow County council provide funding?
"an innovative walkers/cyclists welcome initiative and mountain bike facilities. The programme is 75% funded in the Border Midlands West Region and 50% in the South and East Region, with the matching funding coming from Coillte and two local authorities"
Hey its happened to me too ritchie, i set up a small biking company last year, trackandtrail.ie, i bought 20 lapierre bikes, helmets, knee elbow pads from superstore and wanted to run mountain biking in ballinastoe and other venues, pumped over 20,000 grand of my life savings into it and i have recieved threatening emails from coillte saying if i dont cease this activity at ballinastoe i will be prosecuted so im fecked now. They dont want anything to do with me they said and will not issue me with a permit while other operators are allowed. it seems to be discrimination and who you know at the top in coillte.
I was onto tds and wicklow uplands council, wicklow tourism and others, all of them blabering on about promoting how great wicklow is for mt biking and cycling etc, only if its not on coillte or national parks land
So to ppl wishing to start up in tourism business be careful, ppl will stab you in the back and try destroy yoi any way they can and its who you know that will make your business a success.
Anyone want to buy any 2nd hand bikes ha.
Rant over, apologies!
I'm with Max there..but if any Joe Soap can turn up and ride the trails with 20 of his mates , uninsured and poorly equipped, then how can somebody with all the insurance and expertise be banned and recieve threatening correspondence for it.
In fairness to Niall, he has worked hard at getting in their for years. I'm pretty sure he didn't get it easy.
Theres always groups being lead around the place, I've been approached loads of times by schools to take them. This just doesn't make any sense.
I will tell you something else, the amount of Newspapers and websites that would like me to write an anti Coillte article would make your head spin , only for the fact that I know it would cause even more hassle for the MTB Community, I would be tempted.
To be honest I'm sick of the whole sorry situation. There doesn't appear to be any way of reasoning with them at all. Theres so much wasted opportunities here.
well that was a bit of a waste of time, the woodland league are more than likely the people who complain about us being there. Its pretty stupid to compare the sell off of coilte to eircom is pretty dumb. Eircom had a monopoly and its market share could only go one way once the market opened up it was doomed. The only problem with it was all the ejits who hadnt a clue about the stock market who bought shares in it and then rang Joe Duffy when they lost there shirts. On the other hand Coilte seems like a backwards organisation who do not maximise what they have to make money. You can be sure if a private company takes it over they will want to see a return on there investment.
There is one valid comparison to Eircom, the private equity consortium (led by an eminent media mogul) who did the buy out of Eircom after the disastrous privatisation borrowed a pile of money on behalf of the company and then took a special dividend of about €500m out of the company to put in their own pockets. They left the company with no cash to invest in upgrading broadband, etc and then sold the company on. Asset stripping Coilte would involve selling on the land and taking a special dividend, that is why the land should not be included in the sale. If they sell Coillte as an operating company who leases/rents the land, then the govt can create competition for whoever wants to plant trees and provide recreational facilities, in some ways this might be preferable as you could separate these functions which would remove a potential for conflict of interest that exists within the current structure.
âWe are also asking the public to reclaim their forests in their locality by walking them on Sunday, March 4th, the beginning of National Tree Week, as a national day of protest and every Sunday thereafter until this extremely unwise decision is taken off the agenda.â
March 4th and every Sunday thereafter? Regardless of whatever they stand for, I will be joining in their civil disobedience. Saturdays as well.
Just listening to an interview with Simon Coveney on Newstalk. Apparently there is no question of selling Coillte land nor of reducing public access to the forests! What is being considered is the possibility of selling "future" crops and also other ways of making the land more profitable!
Interesting!
P.S. This is an open forum please keep replies to this thread "civil"!
Bertie set the wheels in motion for the sale of Coillte when he was in power and will make a fortune if Coillte is sold off privately.
Those at the top of Coillte have no interest/will/knowledge of how to make more profits from the land, I feel its only a matter of time before it's broken up and sold... Sure the government are looking for someone to produce a valuation of the lands! http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/sh...x?ID=JAN196415
Mr Ping was telling me at the Grand Dictators meeting on his way home to China the other day , that he had already bought it and I could have Djouce when hes finished ..he said I could have a couple of trees to hang the backstabbers out of , if I wanted. now that would be poetic !
Seriously though, I believe they'll sell it, i kinda think they have to and all fingers are pointing at it !
They could sell Coillte as an operating company and the government should retain ownership of the land. They can rent the land to Coillte and any other operator who would like to plant trees and provide access for recreational use, mtbr's etc. Coilte would be unable to do an asset strip, the buyers of Eircom tokk a big dividend, saddle the company with a pile of debt and the disappeared with the loot, a repitition of this has to be avoided at all costs...
Sooner they sell it the better in my eyes. As soon as a company with a will to make some money takes control they'll see the possibility for revenue on a monthly basis from mountain biking. Coiltes only plan for revenue generation seems to be plant some trees and wait 30 years to harvest them. Anyone who was clued in would have some buildings in the likes of balinastoe etc that could be rented to a bike shop, a coffe shop and some sort of changing facilities. They could push the boat out and put in a car park, I know I'd pay a couple of euro to make sure my car wasn't going to be broken into when I rode my bike. The company is backwards and has no interest in trying to further its self or be in any way dynamic. Typical unionised civil service bull****. I know were all biased about how biking is amazing and can bring so much to an area but all you have to do is look at the figures from Wales, Scotland and New Zealand. They all show that biking is a sustainable source of income for an area.
i tell you this is some funny shi t..
I had a very long conversation with a man tonight in the Superstore, he is setting up business in Wexford.
He is in talks with Bord Failte, theres a heap of funding available from Europe to develop tourism in Ireland, guess who is holding the show up..
Coillte, an archaic, decrepit organisation ! They haven't a clue.
You are dead right Al, but consider the Blast, minimal impact on the land, huge impact on the locale though, Wicklow Tourism were on to us, they can't believe Coillte banned us from running the Event.
What..stop an event that brings 300 competitors and their supporters into one of the smallest Counties in Ireland ?
I think I will have to ring Enda.
I think selling off Coillte will be a good thing, trees that produce money every 30 years comapred to people who produce money, daily, weekly, monthly, annually...whats wrong with this ?
Coillte are complete gob****es, they tie themselves up in red tape and confusion and our friends on the Offroad commission support them.
Feckin eejits !!
I'd like to know if Wicklow tourism and Wicklow county council know about Coillte's refusal to give permits for MTB events in the county?
According to Coillte's website:
While recognising its role in the rural community, Coillte does not have
a primary or lead role in the provision of tourism facilities in its forests,
but will facilitate such developments within partnership arrangements
And I believe local councils fund recreation facilities, so if we want car parks and showers etc at trail centre's then Wicklow County council provide funding?
"an innovative walkers/cyclists welcome initiative and mountain bike facilities. The programme is 75% funded in the Border Midlands West Region and 50% in the South and East Region, with the matching funding coming from Coillte and two local authorities"
Hey its happened to me too ritchie, i set up a small biking company last year, trackandtrail.ie, i bought 20 lapierre bikes, helmets, knee elbow pads from superstore and wanted to run mountain biking in ballinastoe and other venues, pumped over 20,000 grand of my life savings into it and i have recieved threatening emails from coillte saying if i dont cease this activity at ballinastoe i will be prosecuted so im fecked now. They dont want anything to do with me they said and will not issue me with a permit while other operators are allowed. it seems to be discrimination and who you know at the top in coillte.
I was onto tds and wicklow uplands council, wicklow tourism and others, all of them blabering on about promoting how great wicklow is for mt biking and cycling etc, only if its not on coillte or national parks land
So to ppl wishing to start up in tourism business be careful, ppl will stab you in the back and try destroy yoi any way they can and its who you know that will make your business a success.
Anyone want to buy any 2nd hand bikes ha.
Rant over, apologies!
I'm with Max there..but if any Joe Soap can turn up and ride the trails with 20 of his mates , uninsured and poorly equipped, then how can somebody with all the insurance and expertise be banned and recieve threatening correspondence for it.
In fairness to Niall, he has worked hard at getting in their for years. I'm pretty sure he didn't get it easy.
Theres always groups being lead around the place, I've been approached loads of times by schools to take them. This just doesn't make any sense.
I will tell you something else, the amount of Newspapers and websites that would like me to write an anti Coillte article would make your head spin , only for the fact that I know it would cause even more hassle for the MTB Community, I would be tempted.
To be honest I'm sick of the whole sorry situation. There doesn't appear to be any way of reasoning with them at all. Theres so much wasted opportunities here.
well that was a bit of a waste of time, the woodland league are more than likely the people who complain about us being there. Its pretty stupid to compare the sell off of coilte to eircom is pretty dumb. Eircom had a monopoly and its market share could only go one way once the market opened up it was doomed. The only problem with it was all the ejits who hadnt a clue about the stock market who bought shares in it and then rang Joe Duffy when they lost there shirts. On the other hand Coilte seems like a backwards organisation who do not maximise what they have to make money. You can be sure if a private company takes it over they will want to see a return on there investment.
There is one valid comparison to Eircom, the private equity consortium (led by an eminent media mogul) who did the buy out of Eircom after the disastrous privatisation borrowed a pile of money on behalf of the company and then took a special dividend of about €500m out of the company to put in their own pockets. They left the company with no cash to invest in upgrading broadband, etc and then sold the company on. Asset stripping Coilte would involve selling on the land and taking a special dividend, that is why the land should not be included in the sale. If they sell Coillte as an operating company who leases/rents the land, then the govt can create competition for whoever wants to plant trees and provide recreational facilities, in some ways this might be preferable as you could separate these functions which would remove a potential for conflict of interest that exists within the current structure.
âWe are also asking the public to reclaim their forests in their locality by walking them on Sunday, March 4th, the beginning of National Tree Week, as a national day of protest and every Sunday thereafter until this extremely unwise decision is taken off the agenda.â
March 4th and every Sunday thereafter? Regardless of whatever they stand for, I will be joining in their civil disobedience. Saturdays as well.