Mr. Mark Carlin:

To build on that, forestry has never been more important, and we recognise that. There is a wonderful opportunity to create new jobs in the sector, the green tech sector, and to support rural jobs. The first thing is careers in forestry. There are very few foresters. I agree with the Senator that not everyone needs to be a forester. However, we still need technical professional foresters. We do not have enough of them. In addition, there is poor gender diversity and general diversity. We need to consider branding, no more than Coillte, in terms of forestry and what the sector could provide in terms of skills to attract new people into forestry as a career. We also have to develop apprenticeship schemes. Coillte will be working on this within the sector. It is a sectoral problem. Apprenticeship schemes are a way of getting kids who do not want to go on to third level education but want a successful career in forestry involved. We have to open that avenue up again. We used to be better at it. We used to tap into the agricultural fraternity - people who wanted to stay at home on a farm and take care of the land - a lot better. Forestry was a very good thing to work at as well. There are wonderful opportunities to tap back into that.

I agree fully that there are opportunities here both for professional careers and also apprenticeships. Skills and training will be key in the future.