Mr. Mark Carlin:

I need to clarify something. Since Coillte was established, any afforestation that has been done has involved grants and premiums. They were provided directly to the organisation until it was deemed state aid, so it stopped. After that, we worked in partnership to get grants and premiums. This is the same way. We have been asked several times at this committee why Coillte is not facilitating the Government target of delivering afforestation. The only way we can do that is by acquiring land. We do not have any more land. For us to acquire the land involves either working with public bodies - we should not lose the focus on that important part of this - or acquiring land. For us to acquire to land, one cannot simply do afforestation in Ireland without grants and premiums. There has to be a mechanism to do that. The Deputy says it is just 100,000 ha and we are not actually involved. We have a key involvement in it, and that is a positive thing-----