Mr. Paddy Purser:

I thank the Deputy for her questions. She asked about research into the delivery of new technology and the way we think and manage our land resources, in my case the forest resource. There have been a number of research projects and there is a research project under way on continuous cover forestry in Ireland. There is also research on diversification of forest management and integration of the delivery of multiple resources.

As to whether there is enough research, that is a difficult question to answer. Forest research is different in nature from much laboratory-type research because what is needed is long-term research. As the Deputy can imagine, one does not get results from forestry overnight or in one year or even in two years. Sometimes the results are 20 years down the line before one can draw conclusions from a research study. What is important is that long-term research projects are funded. That is happening but we are at quite an early stage in the process in relation to continuous cover forestry in Ireland.

Regarding the percentages of land management of continuous cover forestry here, we do not have an exact figure. ProSilva Ireland estimates that it is between 15,000 to 20,000 ha, approximately. It is probably significantly more than that if we include areas that are not managed but would be categorised as not ever going to be clear-felled for different reasons, including access and so on. I am talking about areas that are managed and owned by farmers, Coillte and private landowners who are seeking to manage their forest actively under continuous cover forestry management. It is not a statistic that is recorded in the national forest inventory but it should be recorded. I am doing the mathematics in my head but the total area of forestry in Ireland is about 770,000 ha, so CCF accounts for in and around 5% of that.