Minister for Finance Brian Cowen is supporting a local campaign to protect Togher Wood, outside Portlaoise, from development pressures by suggesting to Laois County Council that it might be zoned as a public amenity.
In a letter to the Save Togher Wood campaign committee, Mr Cowen, who is a Fianna Fáil TD for Laois-Offaly, said he had also asked the council about the possibility of placing a preservation order on the 300-acre forest.
The committee was set up last month following reports that Coillte Teoranta, which has a long leasehold on Togher Wood, was considering proposals to develop the land for a motor sport facility and national entertainment venue.
Eamon Donovan, spokesman for the committee, said the wood had long been a recreational amenity for the people of Portlaoise, now one of Ireland's fastest-growing towns, and it needed to be preserved for future generations.
The aims of the campaign are: to stop Coillte, the State-owned forestry company, selling its lease on Togher Wood; to resume planting trees there; to have it zoned recreational and agricultural and placed under a preservation order.
"Destroying a beautiful mature forest to make way for a commercial development . . . is unacceptable," Mr Donovan said, adding that such a move would contradict Coillte's policies on nature conservation and sustainable forestry.
John Prior, the company's district manager, told Portlaoise Town Council earlier this month that it had received "an unsolicited offer from a party interested in acquiring this property" for an unspecified development.
This was a reference to the scheme being promoted by developer Jim McDonald.
"As leaseholders, we are not free to undertake developments other than forestry on these lands. We therefore cannot consider this offer," Mr Prior said.
In a media statement issued in advance of a public meeting in Portlaoise last week, Mr McDonald said his scheme would be worth €300 million, creating 500-600 jobs. But Togher Wood "has been removed" from the list of potential locations.
Both An Taisce and Laois Chamber of Commerce are supporting the campaign to keep the forest in public ownership. Numerous people have also signed a petition calling for it to be preserved as an amenity area.
Mr Donovan expressed the Save Togher Wood campaign committee's sincere thanks to everyone who had signed the petition.
"We couldn't have got this far without every single one of you. Democracy is alive and well in Laois," he said.
