Mr. Gerry Britchfield:

On the question of how much land has been sold by Coillte, I will revert to Deputy Ó Cuív with the exact numbers as I do not have them here with me. In general, we typically sell a couple of hundred hectares per year, perhaps 200 ha to 300 ha. In the context of our estate of 450,000 ha., that is a relatively small part. What we are doing is focusing on areas that can deliver significant value over and above forestry. Our condition in considering whether to sell land involves our deciding whether it has a value in respect of another use that is significantly greater than the forestry value. Therefore, it is a question of deciding whether that value could be captured for the State by selling the land.

Since Coillte was established back in 1989, we have acquired about 60,000 hectares of land. In total we have sold around 14,000 hectares since being established in 1989.