Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I appreciate the points made by Senator Coffey with regard to that case. As I said, I do not have sufficient detail here to answer all his points immediately. It is important to bear in mind that the acquisition of that estate dates back to 1933, which is 55 years before the setting up of Coillte, and I do not know how much of whatever ought to have been done ought to have been done in that particular period. I will find out all the details and will forward them to Senator Coffey.

In general terms, I also flagged that there are risks associated with almost any project on which one would engage on any lands, but also on public lands, if that were to be the issue of today. There are issues of landslides in some of the cases where there are wind farms - there have been two minor ones on the Garvagh Glebe site. My recollection is that in each case where an incident arises that has any implications, it is notified to the Department and is considered. Unfortunately, in cases like that and perhaps in some respects in this case, by the time one is getting information and by the time they may have the information, it may already be too late. Nevertheless, my experience has been that the reporting procedures are very robust. I have made it very clear to the chairman and the CEO that I would like those procedures to be strengthened. In fact, I have arranged for an engagement between Department officials and senior personnel in Coillte to ensure those lines of communication remain as robust as they ought to be.