Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 168: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her plans to prohibit the importation of illegally sourced timber and timber products; her further plans to negotiate voluntary partnership agreements with timber producing countries to encourage revenue transparency and accountability in such countries and insist on independent forest monitoring in those countries; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18102/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland fully supports the commitment made by the European Union at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, to form an EU action plan for forest law enforcement, governance and trade, FLEGT, in order to combat the importation of illegally felled timber into the European Union. Illegal logging is a major contributor to environmental damage in developing countries and is closely associated with corruption and the cycle of bribery which is detrimental to economic growth in the developing world. It is estimated by the World Bank that illegal logging costs the governments of developing countries up to €15 billion each year in lost revenue. The FLEGT regulation will introduce a licensing scheme built around voluntary partnership agreements between the EU and wood producing countries. The partnership agreements will be applicable in all EU member states. My Department has been involved in interdepartmental consultations with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Customs on the matter.

Ireland has been a supporter of the FLEGT proposal since the outset. I can report that the thrust of the regulation has been generally agreed at working group level in Brussels. I look forward to further discussions on the subject at the Agriculture Council of Ministers at the end of October.