Mr. Mike Glennon:

The business we are in has changed fundamentally since the catastrophic collapse of the construction industry. Almost two thirds of the output of this sector was being supplied in the home market. After the catastrophic collapse of that market, we all had to reinvent our businesses and strive for exports. We have all done that successfully. Those who buy our product do not do so because the fibre is unique in some way. They buy it because we provide a so-called just in time service. The members of the Irish Timber Council can look at the market, see where the gaps are, respond quickly to them and thereby achieve sales. It has nothing to do with the fibre. The efforts we put into our relationships are of assistance. Our response rate is the most important factor.

I will refer to our business because I am best informed in that area. We supply the Irish and UK markets. We supply ship-loads to France and we supply material to the Netherlands. We need a flexible supply chain to respond to those markets. We feel we are best positioned to do that - we can provide examples in this regard - because we appoint our own harvesters in the forests to ensure we achieve a certain response rate. Every time we have left that facility to Coillte's harvesting, we have had problems. Ships have gone to France without the material that Coillte was cutting for us because it arrived late. I am not sure the State is naturally well positioned to provide the necessary flexibility in rural forests throughout Ireland. The line of communications needs to be limited. We have direct access to the guy who is harvesting in the forest. That allows us to make it happen. That is why our business always tries to buy standing material rather than harvested material. We need flexibility in our supply chain to export. It is not about the quality of our fibre. We grow wood twice as fast as the Scandinavian players, for example. Their fibre would have some inherent benefits compared with our fibre. We do not necessarily win on the basis of the quality of our fibre. It is about how we approach the market. Responsiveness is a key issue for us when we are selling.