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

I thank Mr. Britchfield for the presentation. As he knows, I have much time for the work of Coillte Teoranta. It is worth recording here that the forestry industry, not only in the form of Coillte, has performed exceptionally well in the context of the downturn of the economy, having turned a 70% home market into a 70% export market. I do not believe any major timber-processing operation in the country has been lost since the downturn.

There have been many stories about land and forests being sold by Coillte. The committee needs information on how much land has been sold. How much of it has been sold in small parcels? I am very much in favour of Coillte's policy of facilitating communities with very small parcels of land for community centres, community facilities, playgrounds, etc. I do not know if any member of the committee would disagree with that, as most people would say the policy represents good neighbourliness. I am interested in knowing the method by which commercial parcels are sold and how they are valued, because they are State assets.

How much forestry has been sold as viable forest? Can the delegates confirm that no forest crop has been sold? One could sell the land, the forest and the whole lot. Could the delegates confirm that no forest crop or harvesting rights have been sold in circumstances in which the land was retained?

Is there research on added value associated with timber products? On the few occasions I visited timber-producing areas in Germany and elsewhere on the Continent, I noted the forestry authorities seemed to do an awful lot through small logging operations, thus producing smaller products and added value. While we have really moved ahead with stress testing, kiln drying, and getting good commercial products on the market, which is fantastic in that it results in the very successful production of a bulk product on foot of continuous investment, I noted abroad that there seems to be a lot more timber use generally, including for decking and garden features. In the main, this does not result in high timber values but it produces an awful lot of added value in terms of employment, etc. Is there research on how we could make our timber suitable in this regard?

Much work has taken place on rural recreation. Over the next three or four years, what will Coillte be developing in this regard? There was a big drive involving cycleways, mountain bike trails and walkways. What is the next big drive in regard to rural recreation? Is there a plan for the period 2014 to 2017?

Mr. Britchfield stated that the profit was €35 million. How much of this pertains to sales of land or non-trading profits?

Are there plans for acquiring more land for planting? While there seems to be a policy of holding on to what we have, there seems to be no policy to increase the area of State forest. Achieving this represents the cheapest form of forestry growth, because there is actually no Exchequer input.

While it is nice for the Government to get a dividend, making maximal use of the lands for the people in every way would result in a better dividend in the longer term if the industry were creating employment and so on. The dividend is so small that it does not make a significant difference to the Exchequer. Therefore, if some of the money were reinvested by Coillte, would it be able to create more jobs, generate more activity and develop further?

How much of an overlap is there between Coillte and Bord na Móna? Are they two State bodies with two totally different core businesses that happen to have land on which some might wish to locate telecommunications masts or infrastructure for generating renewable energy? Is this just the opposite to setting up quangos? Is it a question of getting rid of quangos for the sake of making absolutely nominal savings, perhaps of €100,000 or €200,000 per year, at the risk of losing the focus on the core business?