Mr. Brendan McKenna:

I thank the Chairman and the committee for inviting me here. My background is in manufacturing in heavy industry, information technology and health care. I worked with Abbott Laboratories for the last 25 years of my career, where I was group general manager for Ireland. As part of that, I was involved in extensive overseas development with the company. Sidelines to my career include acting as an executive director of CII and FUE and then of IBEC when the two bodies merged into one. I was both deputy president and president of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland for two years. I headed up the committee within Abbott which set up the European works council and was chair of that committee for three years until I retired.

This will be my third term in Coillte. During that time there have been six different Ministers, 18 directors and two chief executives. During my second 10-year term, which ended on 8 October, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, approached me in September and asked me to consider staying on for a period, particularly during the process of evaluation with a view to selling the harvesting rights for 50 to 80 years. I have consented to that and was reappointed to the chair on 9 October for a period of two years. I have agreed with the Minister that I will stay in the chair until at least December of next year to see this process through. He and I will sit down in October of next year to determine the next course of action, depending on the outcome of the process that is currently underway.

I agreed to stay on because of my familiarity with the company and my respect for both it and its executive group. As I said at the management conference in February, Coillte was a good company when I joined it and it is now a great company that is well on its way to becoming world class. There is no reason why Coillte cannot be one of the leading fibre technology companies in Europe within the next seven years. All of the pillars that can make it successful, from my experience with working with multinational companies, are already there. We have a very good strategic plan. We also have a very good innovation plan, currently in its infancy at only four years old, which has already delivered spectacular results. That plan, if adhered to, will deliver significant products to address the environmental and energy efficiency demands that are coming down the line.