Mr. Colm Hayes:

That really comes down to the complexity of the individual application. I ask the Deputy to look at it this way; if I had applied in October, I would have seen that the Department had 4,700 applications on its books and that 1,200 of those people have got licences from us since then. It depends on what way one looks at the figures. As I said earlier, the 300 licences per month is not a figure to our satisfaction and we have set ourselves a goal of 4,500 licences this year. It is, however, a moveable feast. We are well aware that there are commitments in the Forestry Acts, for example, four months for a felling licence, which is absolutely where we want to get to. We are not there yet; we are probably a long way away from it. Three months for an afforestation licence would be a very good outcome also. That is absolutely where we want to get to. As the Deputy said, however, there was a massive crisis and we are doing our best to eat into what is there, but the progress has to be approved.