Mr. Ciar?n O'Connor:

An element of that is needed. Our economy is small in size. As Mr. O'Toole said, trying to set up CLT production in Ireland at the moment is not economic. It is about looking at what we can do. When we met industry representatives last summer, they all were afraid that we would place only one order and then disappear. They asked why they should give up what they are doing in such circumstances. We told them we would guarantee they would get a particular quantum. That transformed both their response and the way we could work with them. They were very collaborative and open and it worked very well.

It is important to note that the industry cannot be grown from a seed and be expected to produce a tree in one year. It has to be developed, and this is one way to do it. We would have to look at how it would match up with European requirements on procurement and the like. We need to look at working it to suit our country. We need to make use of our natural resources, including Coillte. The French and the Germans do not make a big thing of it; they just go and do it. We should take a similar approach. It is the way forward, but we cannot develop it just on the basis that it is a nice idea.