Mr. Mark Carlin:

I will deal with the questions on woodlands and the Scottish experience. As part of our strategic vision, which we announced in April last year, we stated new afforestation would have a mix of 50% productive woodland and 50% native woodland. What we are trying to achieve are multiple benefits in terms of climate, nature, wood and people.

From a wood perspective, it is critically important we continue to plant spruces and pines. They are the timber we need to build our homes. We will continue to do that. From a carbon point of view, there are significant benefits to planting conifers. They grow two to three times faster than broadleaf and will, therefore, also sequester and absorb carbon dioxide two to three times faster. There is a double benefit in wood and in climate and carbon.

Native woodlands are also very important. As we have a biodiversity crisis, we need to make sure we are increasing the level of diversity in our forests. Native woodlands can add fantastic biodiversity value. From a climate point of view, although they sequester carbon slower than conifer trees, they store that carbon over a very long term. We are trying to achieve a good mix. We are absolutely committed to continue to plant productive species for wood production that will be critical for the built environment. We have a housing crisis and need to build houses sustainably.

The Scottish experience is often quoted in Ireland. We often look at Scotland as a model, in that it seems to have got afforestation right. That is fair enough. We have had several experts from Scotland visit Ireland and create various reports. Part of the success of forestry in Scotland has partly been the investor model, along with the landowner model. That is what is being facilitated in Ireland in the national forestry programme; there is a farmer and a non-farmer piece. That debate has played out over the past number of weeks in respect of whether investors in forestry is the right thing to do. That has been part of the success in Scotland, however, and Gresham House has been part of afforestation there. Our interest in this fund here is for the creation of afforestation reforests.