Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentation. I am trying to get my own head around it, to delve into it a little further and to get a little bit more information. I am from the midlands, which is not too far away from Cavan or Leitrim. While the land might be a little bit better, the holdings would not be that much bigger. For one, I get where they are coming from and what they are talking about. I want to get my head around the issue. The witnesses are not anti-forestry. They are in favour of the right tree in the right place at the right time. Their major concern and main gripe is the corporate buy-outs. How does it work? Does a landowner apply for a licence and sell on his land when he has the licence or does he sell his land to a corporate entity pending the licence or does he plant and sell on afforested land? What seems to be the trend? How does it work? When people sell out, do they move on or are they just selling the land and stay around and work in another job or keep a small plot of land? Is the trend to just sell up and get out and is that the major issue in terms of keeping communities viable?

Do the witnesses know the current volume of licence applications in the Department from their respective areas? If they have an idea of the volume, are the majority of them in the name of private individuals or landowners or are they corporate entities? The main point for me to get my head around is how the corporate takeover works. Is it a case of buying land which they then plant or is it buying land with a licence or buying up land that is already planted? Where does the private individual get out of the circle?