Mr. Fergal Leamy:

There were a number of other questions I would like to get back to. There was a question from Deputy McConalogue on our overall mitigation plan and whether we are expanding our estate. Since 1989, when Coillte became a commercial semi-State company, an additional 40,000 ha have been purchased and the estate has increased by that number.

In the last number of years, it has been pretty much net neutral in terms of impact because we do not have a desire to grow that significantly further. It is about optimising the portfolio now and replacing land that is not ideally suited for forest with forestry land which we can drive better from a productive forestry perspective.

On the expansion of afforestation, I cannot go into too much detail on this issue. We have been working intensely with the Department over the last few months on creating options to allow Coillte to play a bigger role in afforestation. Traditionally, what holds us back is that Coillte is not entitled to the premium willow grants to afforest to which the private sector is entitled and this puts us at a disadvantage and means that we do not make a commercial return from afforestation. However, we are working with the Department on how we can use some of the increase in returns from the organisation in a different way to take account of afforestation and to enable the organisation to meet some of the gaps in terms of the targets that have been set. We will not be found wanting in trying to hit those targets. We believe this makes good sense not only from a climate change perspective but from a business perspective because it helps to sustain a growing forestry sector and industry in this country.

In terms of Brexit and how it will impact on the forest sector, the impact will be significant given approximately 85% of the material that we and our customers produce goes to the UK. The UK is a significant market for us and so we need to ensure that we can trade seamlessly into the UK. We are doing a lot of work with various people in Dublin and in London and Brussels to ensure that they understand how we do that. Logistics rather than tariffs are the concern of the forest sector and industry. We need to ensure we continue the growth of this sector.

Deputy Cahill asked for further information on land solutions. We have transferred 15,000 ha from our core forestry business into land solutions. Those 15,000 ha have been identified as not ideal for forestry and more suited to renewable energy projects and housing. For example, we have responded to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government request for a number of sites. There is a site in Moycullen on which there is no forestry and it can be used to meet some of the housing need in that area. We will mitigate that land that is not currently under forestry by replacing it with land on which we will lay forest. There is a role for Coillte in terms of national broadband infrastructure provision and we are working with the Department on a number of initiatives around the last kilometre of the rural broadband scheme. We are facilitating this through the use of wireless technology from our sites and masts. We are custodians of 7% of the country's land and we should be an enabler of Government policy in different areas; we see this as an area which it is appropriate to separate out from the core forestry business.