Coillte has hired KPMG to help it issue statements to its farmer partners clarifying what payments have been made to them and what they are due.

KPMG and a new internal Coillte recruit this week began working on statements for 630 farmers who signed a variety of partnerships with Coillte between 1993 and 2012.

“KPMG’s independent review will ensure that the methodology we use is in accordance with the contracts, and that the calculation of payments is made in accordance with the methodology,” Coillte’s strategy and business development director Bill Stanley said in an interview with the Irish Farmers Journal.

The farmers will receive annual statements clarifying payments already made, payments due in the future and the basis for their calculation.

KPMG will advise on the exact content of the statements and, while some information may be commercially sensitive, Stanley said: “Partners should have transparency, be able to check it against their contract and test it.”

Coillte is prioritising statements this year to farmers approaching the crucial 20-year mark when Government premiums end and payments from Coillte begin. In some cases, this will require visits to update inventories of forests on farmers’ lands and plans for harvesting, which Coillte began last week. The review of farm partnerships came after TDs raised farmers’ concerns over a lack of communication with Coillte and the company opened a telephone helpline for them last month.

Of 55 partners who called the helpline, most issues have been closed out or are close to resolution and eight complex cases will require more work, Stanley said.

IFA forestry chair Pat Collins called for deeper engagement between Coillte and farmer partners including through formal mediation or public meetings, as he expects more partners to come forward with contractual issues.

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