Dr. Eugene Hendrick:

For broadleaf and woodland species there is also a tending and thinning grant that enables material to be brought to the roadside. From an energy perspective, we hope the RHI will be a useful vehicle for the forestry sector that will stimulate local demand. In terms of the privately owned estate, there is a roading grant and there are other grants available.

On the energy side, the Department makes available a lot of information on the supply chain. We organise workshops around the country to bring owners, developers and entrepreneurs together. We show them what one needs to do to put together a good plan to exploit a forest area and supply wood fuels to the marketplace at a competitive price. A lot of things are happening in terms of wood fuels and so on.

It is important that we stimulate that market and not just in terms of the wood fuel supply but for the more valuable material that will eventually be produced from forests such as large stake wood and, ultimately, sawn material. The earlier we intervene in forest plantations in terms of taking out smaller material then the greater the knock-on effect there will be when it comes to providing larger sized material for sawmills, etc. which is the higher end of the market. Such work will give a return to the growers who are local landowners and private forest owners and to the locally developed industry and, on a wider scale, the sawmill sector.

I hope I have covered all of the questions and points that have been raised.