Mr. Barry Delany:

I will come back briefly to the Deputy on the felling, and so on. To be clear, our capacity for that has increased in the past year or two. We are now doing nearly 9 million cu. m each year so, again, parties who wish to fell their timber have the opportunity to do so.

On the point of the afforestation and the pressures on land, yes, that is the issue and is why we managed to get through and approve the new programme which had dramatically increased rates of well over 50% in increased payments to farmers and an additional five years. The proof of that is very interesting when one looks at the applications that have come in so there are licences in the system. With the new applications which have come in to date; some 85% of those are farmer applications. That is very interesting and it shows that there is still some interest there. I know that there are issues and concerns around availability of land but it shows that there is a certain demand there. We will be trying to do our best to promote that and to present a positive face for forestry, as mentioned by Deputy Shanahan.

On the inspections, the point I are trying to make is that it is two-handed. We have our inspections in place of what comes through and what comes in. In addition to that, there is also an obligation on the exporting countries. It is not that I am trying to hand over all responsibility to them but they have a certain obligation in their international trade obligations to ensure that they comply. On the basis of our getting that, we also inspect the assignments coming in.