Mr. Jason Fleming:

Yes. We had a meeting with her this morning. She asked last year what we expected our trees to do for us. One thing I can tell the committee is that we expect the Minister and the Department to deliver for us on the ground as farmers. As stated, the whole forestry industry is on its knees, from nurseries and harvesters right down to the farmers planting trees. They are not planting or engaging and they cannot be lame for that. I am chairman of the IFA forestry committee. We thought the announcement in respect of the €1.3 billion that came out before Christmas was a step in the right direction but, unfortunately, after Christmas we learned of the Coillte set-up and these investment funds Coillte was going into partnership with.

As regards the programme, the 20% broadleaf, especially on the Sitka spruce side, and the 15% biodiversity, when it comes to the 20% broadleaf, that might as well be given over to the State. It is the 35% of Sitka spruce that is unproductive, and there is 15% on biodiversity grounds and 20% for broadleafs. For the 20% broadleafs on the Sitka spruce, we should be getting a broadleaf payment on that. As for the 15% relating to biodiversity, it is lucky there is an ecosystems services payment on it. It involves a seven-year payment. The view of the IFA is that seven years is not much good to us. There has to be continuous payment because when a person goes into forestry, he or she is there for generations to come and there is no way out.

Reference was made to the Coillte set-up. Last year, Coillte came out with this fancy figure of 100,000 ha of afforestation. When the pressure was on, that went from 100,000 ha down to 12,000 ha with Gresham House and then it went down to 4,000 ha afforestation. That is fine; it can be brought into the targets. The remaining 8,000 ha relating to Gresham House, however, is existing forestry. That is not coming into any targets. It is in the system already. The committee of which I am chairman, and the IFA as a whole, is trying to put a stop to the process relating to the remaining 88,000 ha proposed last year. I agree with the representatives of the Irish Timber Council on this. We are all on the same page here. They reckon this deal is not done and they can put a stop to it. If that is possible, we will be behind it 100%. The proposed deal is not good enough.