Mr. Barry Delany:

I thank the Deputy. To date, we have issued approvals for over 3,000 ha of afforestation. Of that, 1,590 ha have submitted their financial approval. That means they have received a licence or an approval from us and are going to proceed. That still leaves an outstanding acreage to come in, so it is something we are working with the sector on and discussing clearly with it to get areas planted as soon as possible. In addition to that, under the new programme we have had 357 new licence applications for afforestation come in, of which we have approved 54. Those newer applications are coming in with all the new requirements in terms of surveys and reports to make it a little easier to get through them. The majority of the applications, some 294, have come in since January. That is really when the new applications are coming in. The registered foresters were focused on the licences that were in the system which applied under the old programme to come into the new programme and that is where their focus was. As we came into January and February, it was the new applications from new farmers. We are getting on average about 12 to 14 new afforestation applications a week and processing about ten a week at the moment.