Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Then one must acknowledge that there were 22 years in which we did not have to give Coillte €100 million because it has been self-sustaining.

I am concerned about Coillte's sale of land. It is a matter to which the committee should address itself. I was fascinated by what Mr. Fahy had to say. It is fair to say that he, his father, Mr. P. J. Fahy, and Connacht Gold have done a tremendous job in my area.

I will add one more statistic. There are more than 100 employed in the mill mentioned. I would suspect there are 50 to 100 other jobs, between CNM and Máirtín Seoige, contractors who live locally, etc. I would say that the direct reach of employees in our area is somewhere between 150 and 200 employees. If one puts a dot on the map where the timber mill is and draws a circle around it of radius 20 miles, the adult population in that area would not exceed 2,500. When one imagines 200 in a population of 2,500, one understands the scale of the impact that this has on the local economy. It is quite simple. Our local economy would not exist without ECC Teo. One could apply the same exercise across the country.

I will ask one direct question. Would the Irish Timber Council arrange for the committee, if it was agreeable, to visit some of these mills so that the members could see the impact of what is going on, understand the human impact by meeting those who work in them, between harvesting, transport, etc., and get some sense of how colossally important these are to the national economy? The figures are most impressive. The committee should see how vital these mills are to the economy of certain rural communities. The rural communities that have the mills are most fortunate.