Ms Imelda Hurley:

I will take the broad questions relating to licensing and Mr. Carlin will answer the questions on ash, elm and the farm partnerships as well as anything else, in the round. In overall terms, we have 16% of the timber that we need licensed for next year. We need 2.3 million cu. m licensed by the end of the year to carry on our operations in what we would consider a normal way. That requires a tripling of the licenses that are being issued by the Department, and resources are a critical part of achieving this. As to whether further legislation is required, we are in a very acute stage of this crisis. We have very little timber remaining for this year. Having been through the legislative change and having followed the passage of the recent Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, frankly we do not have time for legislation now. What we need is licensed timber. We must focus on the current process to achieve that. I can only comment from the outside but based on the volume of licences that we are getting, resources are needed if we are to triple the number being issued. In time, and to have a vibrant forestry sector going forward, a regulatory review is necessary and that may result in the need for legislative change.

I will comment on the dashboard and the licences. The licences that we have had in the past number of weeks are for commercial timber. They now need to work through the 28-day period before they are available, as such, and they can, of course, be appealed. Regarding the number of appeals, we have 700,00 cu. m of timber tied up at the moment in the forestry appeals committee, FAC. That is why I made reference in my opening statement to the importance of the FAC hearing appeals at the pace that is needed. From Coillte's point of view, we must be realistic at this stage. We have 54 appeals listed for the month of November and 24 for the month of December. We have 223 appeals overall that need to work through the system at the moment. Ideally we need those appeals to be heard in this quarter to enable us to maintain volumes for our customers and work for our contractors but we have to be realistic now in terms of where we are. We need the backlog of appeals to be heard to free up that 700,000 cu. m of timber. That needs to be done by the end of January, which will require a very significant uplift, almost tripling what we are currently experiencing. Long term, the industry needs a turnaround timeframe of some certainty. Coillte suggests that a two-month timeframe is reasonable and one around which we could all plan.

Coillte Nature is an important not-for-profit vehicle that is very focused on projects to restore and rehabilitate parts of our estate as well as to create new forests. Coillte Nature is only one part of that work. Coillte recognises the ambitions of the State in terms of the much-needed 8,000 ha of forest as a response to climate change and wants to play its part, not just through Coillte Nature but across the broader Coillte business. I will hand over to Mr. Carlin now who will answer the other questions posed.