Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy can take a very narrow-minded outlook on this. C16 is the structural grade standard that is needed for the construction sector. That is structural timber, which is renewable and an alternative to concrete and steel. New, advanced cross-lamination and other technologies are being developed to strengthen such structures so buildings of a higher height and with greater load-bearing can be constructed from timber. There is the forest floor, with the brash and everything else, being used in biomass. There is a renewable source. It is like saying a cow produces milk everyday. She also produces calves and, at the end of her time, she produces some leather. It is renewable, and there is a commercial aspect to it. That is not a sin.

It is part and parcel of any system we try to make. We are going to use 2.7 megatonnes in land-use options as part of the EU Effort Sharing Decision with regard to our carbon mitigation. That is a percentage of what our 2005 emissions were on new plantations. I think 3.5 million or 4.5 million tonnes of carbon a year can be sequestered and stored in our post-1990 plantations. There is much going on there, and continuous cover forestry is part of it, but it is not at the expense of it either. We are trying to get 18% and we want another 45,000 ha in the next five years.

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