Mr. Colm Hayes:

Working group 4, Project Woodland, is looking at both the pre-planning application and the grant for planning system. The pre-planning discussion appears to have worked well, particularly in Scotland in terms of lifting its numbers. It works in the local authority context as well. Obviously, resources are finite and we have set ourselves the very ambitious target of 4,500 licences this year. It is something that has to be factored into the business planning for the rest of the year. We are open on it. We can see the benefits. It has to be something that delivers a net gain, both for ourselves in terms of the efficiency of outputs and for the sector. First and foremost is the expertise of the foresters who are submitting the applications, which we rely on as well in terms of the quality of the applications. There are a number of ways in which one can approach this which would improve the quality of the applications. Better quality applications mean faster turnaround times. Like the Senator, I am quite excited about this. I am expecting recommendations and detail from that working group under Project Woodland on how they might work, for us to consider in more detail. We have an open mind on this and I look forward to seeing those.