Mr. Gerry Egan:

The Deputy had a supplementary question about the governance of the sale of property and how prices were struck. It is important to set it in the legislative context. Coillte's founding legislation is the Forestry Act 1998. Section 14 of that Act requires the company to agree annually with the Minister a programme for the sale and acquisition of land and the sale of timber. That means that annually we must agree an overall programme, so all timber and land sales - and the acquisition of land that might take place, which is a rare occurrence now - is done within the context of a programme that is overseen by the Department.

When it comes to individual sales, typically somebody - or it might be a local authority - will approach us to say that they are interested in a particular project. We will then have the property independently valued. We have a governance committee within the organisation that confirms the price that is being offered. It is either sold by tender or through negotiation by a local auctioneer. The internal governance committee ensures that at least the reserve price, or the independent valuation, is reached. If sales exceed a certain limit, which is €2 million, the approval of the board is required. There are some strict forms of governance in place even for small transactions.