Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That suggests that it is the three-year lag, but the number of licences being granted has been declining over the past four years. In other words, three years ago there was a greater number of licenses being granted than there were last year. That would suggest that, if anything, there should be a greater number of plantations, as opposed to licensing. The level of licensing is pathetically low. It is nowhere close to even the Minister of State’s own targets. If the level of planting is in the region of about 60% of that pathetically low figure, then we can see how there is a crisis in the making. It is even striking that there is not a quick answer that identifies the problem and how to sort it out. These are lands in respect of which somebody at least inquired, went through the licensing process, and, yet, at the end of the day, decided not to plant. That, as I said, points to an integral problem. Will the Minister of State carry out an analysis as to why that is the case, by engaging with those people who received licences and subsequently decided not to fulfil them?