Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The presentation was very comprehensive and it is very hard to argue with it. To be quite honest, at this stage, all of the evidence from all sectors of the industry is quite simply that it would be ludicrous to sell off the forest crop. Mr. Magner has outlined that this is multifaceted, in terms of the interests of recreational users, sawmills, users of forest material and the preservation of the forest as a national resource available to the people.

Once the forest crop is sold, and the witnesses may have information on this, I presume the Government would want the money from the sale, which means the viability of Coillte would be in doubt. If Coillte could not fund the rural recreational, public good and non-commercial work it does in our forests at present, such as maintaining arboreta, what would it cost the State to fund it directly? I understand the forestry in certain older plantations has elements which are not maintained for commercial purposes but have various species of trees in various areas. I am thinking of places such as Cong with older plantations which are not purely commercial, but the tree element has particular wealth in it. How much would one pay to maintain these non-commercial forests without the forest crop to fund it?