Mr. Michael Moroney:

Our contractors are the people who do the work on the ground. The Deputy will probably have heard the following message from the forest policy group, and that is to have the right trees in the right places but with the right management. We all appreciate such an approach but forestry now has a different input in terms of society. All society wants ownership of the forest sector and not just the people who grow the trees. We are seeing that increasingly in terms of the output from the forest policy group. There will be a number of public consultations around that area and around that mission statement of the right trees in the right place but with the right management. They are very significant parts of what is happening. It is important that when contractors work in a forest that their work function is more visible than many other people because they do the most significant work. They are either digging and mounding, building roads or harvesting trees so one cannot hide a machine when doing such work. One is very transparent and very obvious so that puts huge responsibility on forestry contractors to perform at the best level possible because how they perform impacts on how other people see forestry. We want everyone to see forestry both in terms of being an amenity but also an industry because forestry is hugely important to this country. Our percentage at 11% of the total land area is still too small but we will not get people involved in the sector unless we can all take ownership of what forestry is but do so on the basis that we develop the best standards. When the forestry division within the Department is developing the management strategies they need to involve contractors in terms of what is and is not possible, and how that work can be done. That is hugely important.