Mr. Patrick Bruton:

It was a good question on timber. I have already outlined that the forecast indicates an increase in volume to 4.4 million cu. m by 2035. By 2040, that will reduce to almost 4 million cu. m. The reduction in afforestation we have seen for the past 15 years just means the available volume decreases into the future because we are not planting enough land to bring up the volume again. That is just the bottom line. The irony of ironies in all of this is there is a Green Party Minister of State with responsibility for forestry who will preside over the lowest afforestation programme in 75 years. The same Green Party policies want to replace concrete and steel in home construction with timber. If we do not plant the trees, it is elementary that we will not have the timber.

I will make a small point on the CAP and GLAS, which Mr. Egan has covered very well. Nobody can argue with the fact that there were 48,000 participants in GLAS but the total number of those participants that planted land during the GLAS term was 682. That is 1.42% of the participants in GLAS that planted land during the scheme's term. How can anybody with a shred of integrity claim GLAS and afforestation are compatible?