Mr. Brendan McKenna:

I will answer Deputy Ferris first. It is my understanding that even if the harvesting rights to the fibre on the land were sold, the land is not being sold. That is my understanding of the direction of the Government. Certainly, the instructions for the evaluation of the process that I was given by the Minister related purely to the evaluation of harvesting rights for 50 to 80 years, which is two crop durations. Also, we received an instruction that in the process of that evaluation we should determine the feasibility of the remaining businesses and their ability to remain viable and profitable without recourse to State intervention. At this stage all our evaluations have totally excluded any proposal to sell any land, aside from the small parcels of land that the business sells mostly to county councils and so on for road widening and other aspects.

A question was asked about mineral rights. I am not a lawyer but it is my understanding that irrespective of the sale of harvesting rights, and even if the sale of the land went through, any minerals under the land would remain the property of the State unless the State licensed them out. To my recollection the only exploration carried out in my tenure has been the feasibility of deposits for road building and so on. As far as I know there has not been any exploration for minerals. The Government has made a decision in principle to sell the harvesting rights for 50 to 80 years only, but it has charged us with determining the feasibility of the remaining business in future as well. That is part of the process we are undertaking the moment.

A question was asked about the potential for a merger or whatever between Coillte and Bord na Móna. That was voiced at one stage in the programme for Government but, to my knowledge, it has not been developed beyond that. Certainly, we have had no request to evaluate the potential benefits or otherwise of a merger.