Mr. Mark Carlin:

Where we are replacing ash, we have to work with the Department in terms of reconstitution and force majeurein regard to contracts, and how we approach that. We are putting in the appropriate species and trying at all times to make sure the asset can be realised. At the end of the day, this is a partnership and there is a value to the client that, clearly, we have to be cognisant of. However, there is a value to us as well so we are always trying to do the right thing for the partnership in terms of the value. In individual cases, we are happy to talk to individuals about the best way of handling this.

The Deputy had a question about an important issue, namely, Coillte staff bypassing arbitration processes. This is not happening in terms of bypassing any legal arbitration process. There are clear mechanisms within the partnership to deal with any dispute. We have one case with a partner that is moving towards arbitration and we certainly are not delaying that process. It is within the legal sphere and there is information flowing on both sides. We want this to move quickly and it is in our interest to get it moving. There are another six cases where there has been consent to arbitration, so there are seven cases in this sphere at the moment. I can categorically say we are not delaying things and there is no delaying tactic. We want to move through as quickly as we possibly can on this but it is in the legal sphere.

I am trying to think of what we could be asking the partner to sign which the Deputy might be hearing about. We carry out an annual review every year with the partner.We try, where we can, to meet the partner on site as we think it is better to do this face to face and have a conversation about what is happening with their woodlands and what will happen next. We like to get that signed off, so that might be a case where a document is being signed off which shows where the partner is at with the partnership and what is going to happen next. The only other thing I can recall that we would need to get signed is on the occasion of grants to allow us to build roads and so on. Certainly, there are no other documents we would be forcing a partner to sign, particularly from a legal point of view.