Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the speakers for attending and welcome their return. Much of the detail on what I wanted to go through has been given to Deputy Fitzmaurice, so I will not go over much of the old ground. I will address only a few of the issues.

Over half of the 100,000 ha to be planted by 2050 is to be native woodland. With regard to the requirement for 30% of woodland to be native under the existing forestry programmes, is there not a conflict given that the commercial value of the woodland to farmers will not be derived from the native woodland? Has there been no linkup with Coillte and the Department to address the fact that if they want a native woodland proportion of 50%, it is surely foolhardy to have what is being imposed on farmers?

On the strategic forestry fund, Coillte stated before Christmas, when it addressed this first, that it had €35 million in committed funding, €25 million of which was from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund. In the speakers' earlier contributions, they rightly said the investment would come from pension funds, which are very risk averse and conscious of public opinion, Government mood and anything that happens in Government circles. The overtures from the Government, to which Deputy Fitzmaurice alluded, indicate this is a short-lived project. With respect to the five years, perhaps we are not going to roll back. We have committed. While it would be wrong for Ireland to signal to corporate Europe that it would roll back on something it has committed to, what is Coillte's current position on the €35 million? Has it still got the €10 million? Have any investors said they are walking away from the project because it does not give them a long-term, 20-year investment, which is what pension funds require? Could the witnesses revert to me on where they are at with their request for funding?

I am anxious to probe the Scottish experience. Coillte has obviously considered Gresham House and the Scottish experience in great detail. The Scottish experience implies Gresham House does not really invest in the planting of forests; it buys mature or 75%-mature forests and capitalises on its purchases very quickly. It is in the business to make a profit. I admire Coillte's incentives and determination to help us to achieve our climate target but do not believe Gresham House shares its enthusiasm for Ireland's carbon targets. The delegates will probably have to agree with us in not envisaging Gresham House planting new forests here in Ireland and believing it will want the quickest return, specifically because all the indications suggest the lifetime of the project is five years.

Coillte's opening statement referred to the changes to the state aid rules. It made a submission in 2019 that was left hanging because it felt that any changes to state aid guidelines would entail a very lengthy process with no certainty of outcome. In the third-last paragraph of its opening statement, it stated it is now reviewing new guidelines and engaging with the Department. Did Coillte just start that in 2019 and say, "Feck it, we will leave it to one side and do something else." That is the way it comes across in the opening statement. Suddenly something has happened in Europe, and Coillte is probably coming to us with a belt and braces. I am conscious that I am throwing a lot at the witnesses but will come back to them as they reply.