Mr. Pat Glennon:

That is one of the important issues in answering two of the Deputy's questions. Mr. McNamara is referring to new planting - so we will call it greenfield planting rather than the replanting. As the Chairman has said, anybody starting off has to replant when they fell. Coillte does the replanting, in fairness. However, we are talking about new planting basically. We need between 15,000 ha to 20,000 ha per annum of commercial forestry coming in, which would make a very viable industry. In Sweden one in four people works in the forest products industry. It is a massive powerful industry. We could have something similar here with our good growth rates.

I was asked why Coillte sold off land. I can only guess it was to make the books balance. I do not honestly know.