Ms Imelda Hurley:

In terms of Coillte's profits, we tend to look at them as an average over a number of years because prices go up and down considerably. The average profit over five years to 2021 was approximately €79 million. To come back to the specific question as to why Coillte is now looking to get into afforestation, as a team we spent much time engaging with the board and the Department to determine what Coillte's role should be to support the programme for Government, support climate action targets and to help to enable solutions. It was very clear there was an expectation on Coillte to bring its skills and expertise forward and look to try to be part, but only part, of the solution in terms of the 450,000 ha of new forest that will be needed.