Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It would be welcome to look at that. Specifically, I want to draw a distinction between financial analysis and economic analysis. I have done both in my past. Essentially, the financial analysis is a net present value, NPV, calculation.

It considers the various options, that is, sell, do not sell, a hybrid or whatever. It looks at a discounted future cash flow and comes up with the best answer for the State. A lot of commercial decisions get made on a comparison of net present value, NPV, calculations or a return on investment capital or whatever. The economic analysis is broader than that. While it includes a financial analysis, it also considers factors such as the inherent value to the citizen of owning the forests. For example, I believe the Bacon report tried to put a value on that, as economists can.