asked the Minister for Energy the plans his Department have to retail a major quantity of Christmas trees from State forests when his Department have already, on 4 November, held an auction of Christmas trees for the trade at which much higher than normal wholesale prices were paid because of the limited amount of trees offered, which practice can only be described as sharp, and will lead in some cases to artificially high prices for trees and will lead to the bankruptcy of some wholesalers.
Written Answers - Christmas Trees.
118.
Almost 100,000 Christmas trees, twothirds of the Department's overall supply of 150,000 trees, were offered by auction on 4 November, 1987 for this year's wholesale Christmas tree market. The balance of 50,000 trees was retained to meet traditional local wholesale and retail demands throughout the country. This year's auction replaced sales by tender and direct allocation in previous years whereby only 50,000 trees, roughly one third of the Department's supply, were sold direct to the trade.
Seventy-five thousand trees (approximately) were sold at the auction leaving 25,000 trees unsold. These unsold trees together with the 50,000 trees retained for local forest sales will be sold on a wholesale and retail basis at the Department's 250 forest centres throughout the country. Christmas trees are normally sold at forests from Monday to Friday. Members of the public will be given the opportunity to buy trees direct from the Department at weekends at a limited number of forest centres as follows: Saggart, County Dublin; Comeragh, County Waterford; Clonmel, County Tipperary; Cratloe, County Clare; Adare, County Limerick; Donadea, County Kildare; Kingscourt, County Cavan; Lough Gill, County Sligo. In addition trees will be sold from centres in Galway city and Letterkenny, County Donegal.