Ms Vivienne Jupp:

I am unaware of the meeting the Deputy mentioned that took place today. I had no idea about that meeting. Obviously, to plant trees, Coillte needs a licence. It also has to consider the Environmental Protection Agency, which ensures we are doing all the right things. We can be relatively confident we are complying with the regulations and doing what we are supposed to do.

I can see why people are concerned about whether sufficient wood will be available. When we cut down wood, we generally plant three trees for each one that has been harvested. As those trees grow, they are great eaters of carbon dioxide. The more land there is and the more trees we can plant, the more it will help with that. Our broad climate targets, as I said, are very challenging. We will do our part in trying to ensure we can deliver as much as we possibly can that will help with those targets. I do not think we can do it all on our own. Many people will have to contribute to this climate agenda.

The Deputy mentioned the capacity of people working in forestry. That is very disappointing. It is a terrific occupation. I have only met one forester so far but I am very impressed by the technical, scientific and commitment aspects of the forester, and what he is trying to do when he looks at the various land banks we have to ensure we do the right things for a particular piece of land. We need to do a lot more to attract people into forestry. We also need to do a lot more to attract women into forestry. I have been very focused on that, as the Deputy can imagine. For people interested in the outdoors, it is mainly an outdoor occupation in beautiful parts of the country. I will be asking colleagues to take a look at what we can do to ensure people understand the advantages of a role in forestry, and to encourage more women and men into learning forestry at universities and colleges. We might have to do some programmes with local schools near forests, for example, to make them aware of the kinds of roles there are in forestry. It is on my agenda to take a look at that, especially when we are trying to add much more land. We will need a lot more foresters to be able to do that.