Mr. Mark Carlin:

The committee has heard a significant amount on licensing in the past couple of years. As a forestry company, it has been very useful to have that debate because it has been a difficult period. It must be recognised that the backlog has reduced significantly. That has been very positive. Coillte has been able to run its annual contract sales event in recent weeks, which is significant. It is 50% of the supply from Coillte to the industry and it is the backbone for small contractors and sawmills across the country. There has been significant and positive moves forward. There are still difficulties, particularly with afforestation and roads. There are still issues within the system and the industry is well aware of them. It has been recognised within Project Woodland as well. It commissioned the Philip Lee report. The key is that even though the backlog is reduced, it is still a very onerous system. Everyone recognises it is too onerous. The aim of the review is to make it more streamlined.

There are certain areas where streamlining can be achieved. This goes to the core of the Senator's question. First, the big thing to look at is the conditions that are coming out in some of the licences. There is a need to standardise that into standard practices so that every time a licence comes out, whether it is for afforestation or felling, there are not specific conditions but, rather, more general conditions to which one should adhere which should be standardised. They can be accounted for within the screening process. That is one of the most significant things that could be done. A second point is that we are licensing every activity. If you plant, put in road, thin five times and clear fell, it is a licence all the way along. There is an opportunity to look at this as a project.