Mr. Gerry Britchfield:

To wrap up, having heard from my colleagues, I hope the joint committee will agree that Coillte is highly relevant to this debate and as the largest landowner in the State, has a significant role to play in support of the Government's objectives under Food Harvest 2020. By deploying our natural resources and our skills sets, we can deliver increased carbon sequestration from our forests, low-carbon energy-efficient building products, confidence for those landowners who wish to plant new land that an efficient supply chain is in place and renewable energy from wind and biomass, each of which will contribute to reducing Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions, thereby providing headroom for growth in agricultural output to meet the Government's Food Harvest 2020 targets. We have left members with a number of recommendations we believe could enhance further our ability to contribute, including a renewable heat incentive to encourage the growth of bioenergy, a clear signal of the Government's ambition for wind energy post-2020 and recognition for the provision of valuable public goods. We hope the joint committee has found our submission to be useful and we will be happy to take any questions members might have.