Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

We have said that we need to improve the rate of issuing of afforestation licences. We have appointed a dedicated team to do that work. Insofar as Coillte is concerned, approximately 75% of the timber that goes into sawmills is from Coillte. Sawmills rely on confidence about the 2022 supply in order that they can go to their banks in the autumn to get the finance to run their businesses the following year. The contracts that Coillte makes available this year for 2022 are the critical part of their business model. They would be in trouble if we did not do that. It is unsatisfactory. In a well-functioning system, we would be dealing with all of these things at exactly the same time and at the same pace, but we are trying to manage things in a way that makes sense. We accept that the rate of issuing afforestation licences is inadequate. As I said, we have appointed a dedicated team to deal with that work.