Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and her officials. We have had a very robust exchange for the last hour and a half. We have only one aim at this committee. We want to see an efficient forestry sector with more afforestation and the timely issuing of licences. We all want to get to one place. There are a few issues that we as a committee will not let go, one of which is ash dieback. The legislation on thinning is another. As I said, the timely issuing of licences and the timeline for that is important.I saw it working extremely well in premia in the past where we had an ad hocsystem for the payment of premia. We got a farmer's charter in place and 97% to 98% of the premia are paid on a specific date. I know it is a lot of work to get there but if we are going to have an efficient industry going forward, we must strive to get to that. I thank the Minister of State and her officials. We will now suspend. We are meeting again at 1.30 p.m. to discuss the pig industry and fixed-price milk contracts.