Ms Bernie Gray:

I emphasise again that the size of the fund for Gresham House is 12,000 ha. We are talking about 100,000 ha of new afforestation which has to apply. Of the 12,000 ha, which Gresham House will be concerned with, 3,500 ha are new. The impact, in terms of farmers, of a fund like Gresham House is quite small in the context of the overall target. It is an issue for the State in terms of land use.

There are competing demands for land use. There is no doubt about it. Should it be used for forestry? Should it be used for housing? That is a debate which is bigger than Coillte. If anything, the debate around Gresham House is accelerating a discussion around that. We welcome that. We are trying to calibrate our role as best we can with the mandate we have but that cannot ignore what the State has to do. The Gresham House piece is a tiny piece of that.