Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives from the ITC for being here. As we have gone down the pecking order when it comes to questions, some of what I have written in front of me has been covered. An area that I wanted to cover was that relating to sitka spruce versus broadleaf, and the representatives answered their position on that well. We have had the Department, Coillte, forestry contractors and farm representative bodies, who would be the farmers that own the land, before us.

I have a couple of questions sticking to the witnesses’ special subject because it is good to hear from them. Ultimately, they are not the end user, but the last step before the end user. On that basis, we all knew - and it is there again in the witnesses’ presentation - that we peaked around the early 1990s. That is 30 years ago, give or take. We should have timber coming out of our ears today, pardon the expression. Yet, there were boats coming from Scotland. Can the witnesses categorically state that if it was not for the licensing debacle, there would have been no boats?