Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

How will it be shown retrospectively what quantity of timber was taken and what was the price for the timber at that particular time? Some of this is going back a number of years. I have talked to some of the forest owners. I find it hard to comprehend how a product could be taken off the land in circumstances where there is a contract in place and no weigh docket given to the owner of a plantation. I find that hard to understand. I am not adjudicating now because it is not my place to do so. However, I find it hard to understand how a company can do thinning or a clear fell, take away the product in circumstances where there is an agreement in place for 80% and 55%, respectively, of the profits to fall to the farmers without showing the farmer what has been taken away. I am a dairy farmer. I get a docket each day telling me what milk has left the farm. The price is determined. The same applies in respect of cattle. They are weighed at a factory, a mart or wherever else. I cannot get my head around this. I do not take myself as being completely dense but I cannot understand how a product can be removed without a docket to show what product has been removed. I cannot get my head around that.

There is a vote in the Dáil Chamber. I know Senator Boyhan is anxious to ask a question. I will ask Senator Daly to take the Chair.