Mr. Mark Carlin:

I will start by addressing the farm partnership questions. The first question was on payments to partners and the clarity on timber removals and trucks being removed. We have made great inroads in improving the information that is given to our partners on a commercial basis through commercial statements. The main harvesting events that will be taking place at the moment are thinnings. A significant advantage that we have over the private sector is that every truck that we have removing timber is tracked with GPS, so we know exactly what timber was harvested and put to roadside and where all the trucks that removed that timber went. We also make sure that we convert tonnage into volume, which is of benefit to the partner, instead of paying by tonne. That information is all readily available. It is not being made available, but we certainly can make it available to partners if they wish. That can be dealt with locally. The information is there and it is all very well-tracked.

There was a question on dissolving partnerships, where the buyout price was different from the buy-in price. That is a matter of how much has already been paid over to the partner. At a particular moment of maturity of the partnership, depending on the specific partner and type of contract, moneys can already have been paid over. Those moneys have to be discounted and indexed. This is a valuation procedure which is pretty well defined in forestry. We recently had KPMG review our valuation methodologies. That would explain the buyout versus the buy-in price. Moneys already paid over would generally cause that differential. We can look at things on a case-by-case basis but that is the biggest cause of the difference in price.

When it comes to grants for reforestation and Coillte acquiring the land of our farm partners, we are not in that phase of our partnerships yet. The clear-felling that we have done with our partners has generally been through windblow, where we have had to go in and salvage trees, and there has been very little of that. We have not come to a position yet where these partnerships have matured and we are clear-felling and looking at reforestation. However, we would be interested in acquiring land for reforestation, but it would be done at a fair market value. The partnership ends once the crop is felled and the land reverts back to the partner. It is entirely up to the partner what to do with the land. We would like to provide partners with an option of acquiring the land but it will be done at a fair market rate.

There was a question about communications with partners that may already be in or approaching arbitration. The only communications that would be happening at a local level are not legal conversations. They relate to the forest operations that are happening. It will be our local forester talking to the partner about what has to happen with a road or the crop itself. If the partner feels that is inappropriate, then I think we have to look at that again. It would be in our best interest to improve our communication with the partner, but if the partner feels that that is inappropriate because it is in a legal sphere, then I think it is fair enough that we have to have a look at these few cases that we have that are approaching legal arbitration.

To address the question of the afforestation of 8,000 ha and how long that will take to come to market, that is not really a constraint at present with regard to demand and supply. We are in a happy position in Ireland in that we are one of the few countries in the European Union where our private supply of timber will double in the next five years. It will double again ten years after that. Following the investment that the State and private sector made in planting forests, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s, those forests are coming to fruition, which is great to see. This industry will double in size and then double again. To answer some of the questions that we have heard about employment, our challenge will not be sustaining 12,000 jobs but identifying people who can take on the next 10,000 jobs. This is a good news story that we maybe need to make known a bit more.

On the question of Bord na Móna and rewetting, the science about the best thing to do with bogs is really quite complicated. We try to follow the national peatlands strategy. In this initiative with Bord na Móna, we need to make sure that we are only afforesting areas of bog that are appropriate for afforestation. Where it is appropriate for them to be left alone for reasons related to carbon or biodiversity, then they need to be left alone. Where it is appropriate for them to be rewetted, that should be done. We are trying to strike the right balance between creating biodiverse natural wilderness forests and making sure that we do not disturb boglands and the carbon store. Determining the best treatment is quite challenging but we are taking the best advice that we can. This is a good news story about creating new wilderness forests for biodiversity. We will be using seeds from birch and Scots pine so there will be a very natural looking feel to these forests. It should be seen as a very positive move but we have to respect the ecological advice that we get.