Mr. Barry Delany:

There is no doubt that we have come through a very difficult time on the issues of licensing, the knock-on effects of that and the impact of both felling and afforestation licences. If one looks at the figures and the most recent dashboard on where we are at, we are issuing twice as many licences as we are receiving for felling; the turnaround time is reduced from over two years to under a year now and some are even coming out more quickly than that.

On the issue of felling and the issues that were previously here and would have been discussed at length here by the Deputies, that has moved on now. We are in the situation now where we are certifying in the order of approximately 9 million cu. m for the past two to three years. We would argue that there is supply out there for people to take up.

On afforestation, we have come through a difficult time and trying to secure a programme with the European Commission took longer than we had hoped. Having said that, as of today, there are 1,500 ha ready and available to be planted in licensing and we know that many of the forest companies are taking that up.

In addition to that, and we will come to that later on when discussing ash dieback, but under the new programme of approvals we are just about reaching 1,000 ha approved and I have just received a few text messages today from people who are clearing under the new ash dieback scheme and are very appreciative and welcoming of that also.

That, along with the promotion campaigns which we are starting to run at the moment with regard to the new programme at pace to plant trees - the Deputy may have seen some of those on the national media - together with the regional engagement and working with Teagasc, trying to reach out to the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, Forest Industries Ireland, FII, the Irish Timber Growers Association, ITGA, and other sector representatives; is about getting that message out about the possibilities of afforestation being a good option for farmers as part of their overall farm approach.