Mr. Gerry Egan:

I was trying to group the questions logically. The Irish Forestry Unit Trust is a vehicle that enables pension funds to invest in forestry in Ireland. It allows pension funds such as the ESB, An Post and Canadian Teachers' pensions funds, an opportunity to invest in productive assets in Ireland. It was established in 1993 and involved the coming together of two existing forestry investment funds owned by Irish Life and AIB Investment Managers and Coillte. Coillte got involved because there was a need for immature forests as part of the fund in order that investors could liquidate their investments from time to time, as in the case of any pension fund. People retire and need to be able to take their money out. In terms of forests given over by Coillte to the fund, the forest has been sold but the land has been retained. Even where the harvesting rights of these forests have been sold to the Irish Forestry Unit Trust, the land is retained in the ownership of Coillte.

There is also a second fund, entitled the prescient Irish Forestry Unit Trust. Any of the forests sold by Coillte into these funds have been sold for one rotation and the land has been retained by Coillte on behalf of the State. Both of these funds publish their accounts and are available in the public domain. Full details of the holders of the units is a matter of public record. The only reason I hold back on saying what area of forestry is sold is that I do not want to give the Deputy the wrong information. Some of the sales date back over ten years. I will follow up on the matter and communicate tomorrow or the day after with the information in relation to the area of forest that has been given over to these funds.