Mr. Pat Glennon:

On the point made by Deputy Barry, we are not here to throw stones at Coillte but to seek to protect our industry. If there are problems in the industry as a whole, they need to be analysed and addressed. We believe we are as lean and mean as we can be and are prepared to put our shoulders to the wheel to try to come up with a solution to help Ireland Inc. going forward. We must ensure we come up with the right solution for Ireland and the Irish taxpayer going forward.

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue of species diversity and Senator O'Neill asked a question about Harvest 2020. In seeking land for forestry we are not competing with people in the agriculture sector seeking land on which to grow crops, cereals and vegetables. The land we seek is of much poorer quality but on which our sitka spruce does really well.