Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Senator Pippa Hackett):

I acknowledge that confidence is low in the sector and we need to work towards regaining that confidence. I would like to think that the new forestry programme will help with that in a significant way. Unfortunately, I can do nothing about the base, which was there before I started. We can only move in one direction, as I believe we are doing, and that is improving and delivering licences like never before, or certainly not in recent years. We are at 92% of expected output, which is a good place to be. Coillte tends to get more licences because it supplies 60% or 70% of timber to the sawmill sector. That comparison is continually made but it is about the supply chain and ensuring there is an adequate supply of timber into the saw mill sector. That had ground to a halt when I took office. There are improvements across the board in forestry.

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