Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

That is right out at the edge of my knowledge. I know that my colleagues on the marine side are actively engaged with seaweed harvesters and there is very significant potential there. This has been discussed at several SeaFest conferences. There is amazing potential in some cases and there are a few companies mining this resource. It does lead into questions of foreshore licensing and so on, quite complex issues which have been troubled in the past. To be completely honest, I need to swot up on this before I can give a more comprehensive answer.

Forestry in Leitrim has received some coverage. There was some misinformation about the level of afforestation in some parts of the country. We have very detailed figures for every part of this country. I was looking at our remote sensing data and forestry mapping in the past few days with our colleagues in Wexford. It has to be understood that farmers still enjoy a significant advantage over non-farmers in afforestation because they get all the other payments as well, single farm payment, green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS and all the rest that non-farmers do not get. Over 80% of the planting in Leitrim is done by farmers, if I remember the data correctly. That is quite significant. The tax reliefs on forestry are generous. What an economist would call the subsidy, the tax breaks, the establishment grants and premiums all lumped together represent an enormous level of subsidy to forestry and overwhelmingly that goes to farmers.

It is establishing a new crop on Irish land and a new option for farmers, so they can go into a profitable new crop - new for many of them - on their land. In general, Irish farmers then plant only part of their land but there are exceptions. They do not reduce their agricultural production as they squeeze up their agricultural production a little bit on the rest of their land because their production is often very extensive. That is the pattern to date. At 11% of our land, Ireland has one of the lowest rates of afforestation in Europe, where the average is 38%. Some countries are 70% afforested. We have a national aim of getting up to 18%. This is an important measure. It is hugely important in the context of climate change and for our agriculture. As I said in my opening statement, it is one of the great challenges and it is not coming down the tracks; it is here right now. It is a real challenge for us. Forestry is a very important part of our strategy for dealing with it. It is also creating a new industry. I have been in some of the plants. I imagine we will have more discussion about it but this is the way we see it.

Haulbowline is a huge project with €61 million estimated as the overall cost for the three elements. The priority is the remediation of the east tip of the island where all the stuff from the old steel plant is and where the environmental risk is. The old steel plant factory area requires remediation also. The factory is no longer there but there is a very messy site. The third element is the rehabilitation of some very striking and beautiful old cut stone buildings. All of these have to be addressed and €61 million is the estimate of the total cost. Off the top of my head, I believe the Department has spent some €7.8 million - that figure that pops into my head - to date with Cork County Council. Cork County Council has recently done a tender, which it is now examining, for the main works.