Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

I will deal with the forestry question first because I am more familiar with that. We have a forestry programme now, the negotiation for which was tortuous. We had to have that with the commission because we grant aid the provision of forestry in Ireland, unlike many other member states. Therefore, there has to be state aid approval. A big part of the discussion was with the directorate-general for the environment, which had specifications that it wanted. The kinds of things that the commercial sector might not be keen on include the overall proportion of native species that has to be planted, which is 50%. Mr. Savage can correct me if I am wrong about any of this. It includes the proportion of native species that has to be planted in individual plantations and planting on peat, which we now know led to let emissions in some historical situations. That is some of the conditionality that was applied to forestry.

There will be a mid-term review of the programme in 2025. We had a fairly long session on forestry a couple of weeks ago. I made this point but will make it again. People often press the pause button if they think something easier is coming down the tracks. I do not want to give people the impression that the environmental conditionality for forestry will diminish as a result of this mid-term review. Frankly, I do not see that happening.

We now have a programme which has all sorts of imaginative schemes. Deputy Fitzmaurice might not agree. It has a variety of schemes that might suit people. It has the commercial element in it. We now have 20-year premiums for farmers, when we only had a 15-year premium last time around. There are substantial increases of between 40% and 60% on those premiums. We have a commitment where if people apply for a licence and does not need an appropriate assessment, they will have a licence within six months. If they do, it will take nine months. They have the certainty that, all things being well, they will get the licence in that time period. I know there is a legacy of problems with the licensing system. My hair is torn out as well. Certainty is important now. We have a programme that is stable. It is there for people. We will try to give new applicants for forestry a good experience. We will try to contact them and talk to them about where their licence is. I do not want to pretend that, in three months' time, we can review this and everything will get much easier, that the environmental conditionality will be diminished and we will be able to plant on peatlands greater than 30 cm. That will not happen.