Mr. Gerard Murphy:

Coillte has maintained a tree improvement programme for the past 20 to 25 years. We do not do any genetic modification. It is a much more basic form of tree improvement where we go out and look at our crops. We identify what we think are improved trees. We take the seed and through various vegetative propagation means we evaluate the progeny of those to identify what we think are the best family or provenance. It is those that will inform our decision. Over recent years we have found that by identifying the correct provenance and seed origin and building a genetically improved variety of it, we have substantially improved the productivity of our crop. We also look at other issues, not only productivity but resilience against insects and disease and wood quality. We are now building those criteria into the tree improvement programmes. Teagasc also does it. We do it mainly for Norway spruce and Sitka spruce. Teagasc does it for some of the deciduous trees. We tend to do it on conifers.