Ms Imelda Hurley:

As a general policy, if we are approached by someone looking for a site or a particular property, we will review it under a number of lenses and determine whether it is a piece of land we would consider selling. It is important to recognise that in any instance where Coillte sells forestry, there must be a reason for it and we always purchase land and afforest it or acquire forests to ensure the overall size of the Coillte estate is never reduced. It is perhaps important to give context that when Coillte was formed in 1989, approximately 396,000 ha of forests and lands were under management and today it is approximately 440,000 ha. That will give the committee a sense of the trajectory of travel. It is critical that the size of the estate is not reduced and, therefore, in any instance when forestry is sold, we mitigate. That is the word we use.