Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Annual Report 2012: Discussion with Coillte
5:10 pm
Mr. Gerry Britchfield:
There was a question about NHAs. Many of our lands would be classified as NHAs and have other environmental designations. We must manage them in that context, like anybody else must. We are subject to the normal requirements under law when one is operating in a NHA.
Turning to the question from the Vice Chairman about the difficulty getting timber and the price of Irish timber vis-à-vis imports, we offer all the available volume we have in any year on the market. In fact, in the current year we are selling more than 98% of what we offer. Basically, we offer all we have and our sawmill customers are acquiring that volume through an auction process which we have agreed with them. It is the way we have mutually agreed we will offer our timber to the market. Prices in Ireland for logs are high compared to the prices in the UK. There are two issues involved. The prices in the UK are relatively low compared to European prices, but I also acknowledge the prices for sawlog in Ireland are relatively high. Ultimately, we are offering the volume on the market to our sawmill customers in the way we have agreed with them and they are acquiring that volume on the basis of bidding for it on the system.