Mr. Donal Magner:

Many questions have been asked. I shall answer some of them and my colleagues shall answer the remainder. I shall commence by responding to the last question posed by Senator O'Neill.

The premium that Irish processors pay on timber is based on log supply here and Irish mills are over supplied. For example, Glennon Brothers, a mill that was represented here last week, continues to import around 150,000 cu. m of logs into the country because of a shortage of raw timber material. A shortage means that more mills must compete for less product. As a result, Irish mills must pay more than their UK counterparts before they can export to the UK. Unfortunately, Irish mills must pay the premium in order to compete.

I have visited a number of Irish sawmills, especially ECC Teoranta, Murray Timber Company and Glennon Brothers. I have found them to be much more competitive because they must deal with lesser commodity, use a tighter process and compete with UK growers. They must also compete with the Scandinavian countries who have a better quality resource than Irish timber, even allowing for the 30% increase.