Ms Geraldine O'Sullivan:

It is a driver of why timber is imported due to the requirement, as Mr. Fleming said, for mills and the chain of custody. They need 70% certified and 30% non-certified to get the stamp to say it is certified. This is increasingly becoming an issue as greater volumes of timber come from the private sector. At the moment, Coillte and the pension funds are certified and small areas of private forestry are certified but the vast majority are not. That is definitely a driver for the mills, particularly at pinch points during the year, which they manage by importing certified timber. It contributes to greater volumes of timber coming in. As Mr. Fleming said, work is ongoing following a report that a national certification scheme should be set up. A business plan is being developed, supported by the Department, but it will be a huge body of work to get all forest owners certified, particularly with the scale and size of private forest ownership. It is a significant increase in requirements and will be very costly in the management plans required to do it. We need to do it because our market demands it but it is contributing to more volumes coming into the country.

On the other question about removing bark, that significantly reduces the risk of bark beetle because it is under the bark. You would still need some biosecurity measures and management of that. Even in shipments, you can see bits of bark and the bark beetle could be there. It would reduce the risk significantly but you would still need surveillance, monitoring and management.