Ms Vivienne Jupp:

There are more than 600 cases of this. A very small minority, by which I mean a tiny percentage, are unhappy with what is going on. We will have to sort that out and I hope it will be sorted out as amicably as possible. I do not want it to go to arbitration, which is a very expensive process. Rather, we will seek to encourage the people. It is only a handful of people who are concerned about it. If we could get agreement to go to mediation, that would be really advantageous. Coillte has made me aware of this problem and over the years it has put in place much better arrangements for engagement. We now have a dedicated unit that will answer any questions people have. It will be prepared to meet the farmers and talk them through it. They all have a dedicated person whom they can call. I hope that will improve and that we can resolve what they are disputing with us as quickly as possible.

I read about the Derryclare issue recently. It is a big disappointment to us and we will have to take a look at what we can do with it. As I understand it, the foresters did a great deal of analysis of the land and, based on science and the nature of the land that was covered, produced a plan to identify what they could do with the various pieces, which was not the same for the entire Derryclare area. It varied depending on the nature of the land and what we could do. It is disappointing to us. We are going to have to take a good look at it and see whether we can engage with the county councils. This is potentially something that will arise with other county councils because they are the ones who take a look at these planning applications, and we need to get the proper authority to move forward with it. They felt it was a very good plan in that there is some forest there and they will be removing it because it is on peatland, and they will have a variety of ways in which they could use the land more effectively.