Tom Barry (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to Mr. Moloney and I wish him well. He certainly has left Glanbia in great order and it is a very professional organisation with which I have dealt quite a bit. The return to the State from Coillte has been dismal. I think there was a return of €2 million and then €10 million was added to that when Coillte was under pressure because it might be sold off. Does Mr. Moloney see that profit or those moneys returning to the State being more reliable and consistent? Is it his intention to make sure that prime timber goes into logs, as opposed to being sent into lower value products?

Coillte may have sites that may be wanted for development in the public interest or for job creation. I am thinking of the likes of Bottlehill, which was sold to Cork County Council for €15 million at the time. Admittedly that was during the Celtic tiger period, but the taxpayer has to bear the burden of excessive costs for forestry land. Could there be a fairer pricing structure for these sales? I know there is a pricing structure in place with the ESB for leeways going through lands with forestry. Would Mr. Moloney consider changing that structure to a more realistic pricing? We had a situation a few years ago where an elderly man who was living on land with forestry wanted to get power and he was asked for around €80,000 so that power could be brought to his house. Situations like that caused a lot of trouble at the time. Perhaps Mr. Moloney could provide his views on that.

As a person who uses a wood gasification boiler myself, I am a great advocate of using timber for heating. Would Mr. Moloney consider promoting the renewable heat incentive schemes, similar to what they have in the UK? I think one penny per kilowatt hour is supplemented by the British Government. That could be two cent in this country. We need Coillte to come on board for this in order to have a continued supply chain. It is really important at the moment given that 38% of European gas comes from Russia and there is a serious concern about that supply at the moment.