Dr. Eugene Hendrick:

I thank members for their questions.

I shall first respond to the question of biomass and the situation in County Mayo and around the country. The local use of energy for heating is welcome. We hope that the renewable heat incentive will result in a local demand for material for use in heating and so on. The RHI is a good model to incentivise the use of wood fuels locally and some local businesses or small district heating facilities use wood fuel for heating. We see the initiative as being a great match to the forest resource because a lot of additional material will come on stream from the private sector over the next 15 to 20 years. We view the heat market as a good way to use such material.

On the point made by Deputy Fitzmaurice, County Wicklow has the highest level of forest cover in the country and it has thriving local rural communities, in many cases on foot of afforestation that took place 30, 40 or 50 years ago. The county has many small sawmills and many companies that make garden sheds etc. We see this as a good model and example for the rest of the country in terms of the benefits generated by afforestation over time.

The Deputy made a point about tree thinnings. The forest service provides a forest road grant to landowners in order for them to thin out their plantations.