Mr. Fergus Moore:

We have the chairman of the COFORD Council, Dr. Eugene Hendrick, here today. In the last several years the COFORD Council has developed a range of policies and advice for the Department. As the members know, the COFORD Council is appointed by the Minister to advise him on matters of forestry policy. In the last several years, the COFORD Council has been actively involved in producing a range of reports on climate change, ecosystem services and the availability of land for afforestation. The Minister of State is currently examining several reports on the reasons foresters do not engage in certain services and farmers do not engage in forestry. It has also done very important work on timber mobilisation and production forecasting. I am pleased to note that the next COFORD Council will run for three years, from 2019 to 2021. We have set up a range of working groups. The first working group concerns forestry and climate change and will advise the Government on a range of issues. We also have a group working on the socioeconomic impacts of forestry. Another working group has been set up to look at forest genetics, tree-breeding and forest resilience. The work of the COFORD Council is very important. It helps to inform policy and will inform the direction of funding in the next several years.