Mr. Gerry Britchfield:

The total volume of imports into Ireland last year was somewhere around 100,000 cu. m. Therefore, 100,000 cu. m of volume was imported into the country and we supplied 2.3 million cu. m in total with 1.4 million cu. m. or 1.5 million cu. m in saw log. The import piece is very small compared with the amount that we supply to the market.

With regard to where volume can come from, due to phyto-sanitary reasons there is only a small part of western Scotland where logs can be imported into Ireland without being debarked, which is extremely expensive. On the one hand, every two weeks we put volume on the market. There may be occasions when a sawmill can go to Scotland and acquire volume, an on-the-spot market, and at a price that is comparable with what they are paying for our logs. I do not know what they pay for imports. I hazard a guess that it is reasonably comparable to what they pay us but not by the time they get it to their mill gate.