Mr. Barry Delany:

I will start with that one first. Ireland and Northern Ireland work as a single epidemiological unit under the EU plant health rules. In effect, we work as one single unit with regard to import trade. Interestingly, in the past two to three years, they have not taken any imports of coniferous roundwood from the pest-free area. They have not taken any imports of roundwood into their plants in Northern Ireland in recent years. They have been supplied by local supply, as we understand it.

I will hand over to Seamus Dunne in a second to outline exactly what happens in Scotland and the ports inspections we carry out there. We are obviously concerned about these pests. That is why we sought the protected zones for these many years ago. The difference here, perhaps, with ash dieback is the fact they are fully regulated, and that allows us to do the surveys we do and take actions if we have any findings. The other point I would make is that the Scottish authorities, whether they are a member of the EU are not, are part of what I mentioned earlier, the International Plant Protection Convention. Under that, for them to send any product to us, their national plant protection organisation must carry out the appropriate surveys and must be able to show to us that they can comply with the EU import requirements, which is what they do. I will come back on the resources afterwards but I will let Mr. Dunne explain what the Scottish actually do before they issue the certificates to us.