Mr. Des O'Toole:

I will try to shed some light on why there may have been no application for an Agrément certificate but first I will respond to the comment on the level of exports. The Irish forestry sector produces a range of products, including fencing, pallets and construction-grade material which is the material which could go into C16. Last year, we produced approximately 700,000 m3 of construction-grade timber and 265,000 m3 of that was exported, predominantly to the UK. It is probably 35% or 37%. It is not as much as one would think. We do have supply. As Mr. Carlin said earlier, we also have forecast growth.

On the status of Agrément, the Deputy rightly pointed to the work by Dr. Annette Harte from the University of Galway. A series of tests has been undertaken on the suitability of home-grown and it is largely coming up trumps, which is great. Cross-laminated timber, CLT, manufacturers throughout Europe have a European technical assessment, ETA, which is similar to an Agrément certificate so tests, such as fire tests, have been undertaken for those products. There are no Irish manufacturers. The scale of investment required is €50 million to €90 million for a typical modest-scale CLT manufacturing plant. The European market is estimated at about 1.8 million m3. The 71 plants in Europe are already producing CLT. Largely, they have ETAs which are accepted across Europe and that is why those medium and high-rise buildings are built. I do not believe they would undertake additional certification and the costs associated with that for what European CLT manufacturers would perceive as a small market, which currently limits height to 11 m for the reasons we discussed earlier. Demand is relatively small. The UK market is estimated at 100,000 m3 and the European one is 1.8 million m3. The Irish market is only a very small faction of the UK market. I do not believe anyone will undertake additional tests for a small market on the outer extremes of Europe. I would suggest we consider an alternative. There might be opportunities with Mount Lucas. In order to stimulate demand, our design practitioners, fire officers, fire engineers and our regulatory authorities must become familiar with the technology and we must get them to understand what potential it has. We need proof of concept. We need demonstration buildings. If there was some mechanism to allow an ETA to be acceptable, through a demonstration project that is highly designed, supervised and monitored, there may be a way to get something through the system so that we can show the people who have these concerns what is possible. That is how to do it. Coillte would be willing to work with local authorities, the Office of Public Works, Mount Lucas, industry or whoever. We have done it ourselves with Avondale and we are willing to do it again. There is great opportunity here for Irish timber. We just need to find a pathway through the regulatory environment to see the market and to see what is possible.