Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I presume the Minister agrees we are going to spend damn all money this year on forestry. By the time we get the go ahead, first of all, an application has to be put in. There is a headline figure of €1.3 billion. We have to make an application for state aid, which will not be for another month and then it could take between two and eight months. Let us say it takes four or five months and then people have to go through an application process, and we know what that is like. Where is this budget going to be if it is not being used for this year? I know the Minister is going to say there is a preliminary budget for the people who had been given planting licences before 31 December. Where is that budget?

On a side note, Chairman, I did not see any dashboards coming into us in the new year. The clerk to the committee might check that for us. No dashboard has come into members for the new year. It was a great help to us to be able to look at what was going on the forestry sector.