Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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669. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 262 of 3 March 2022, if he will provide a detailed breakdown of the different inputs and materials used to reach a cost of €2,457 per hectare to remove rhododendron; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20634/22]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The figure of €2,457 is based on an open tendering process, using a framework established on the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) website. Any successful tenderer would take into account such factors as; cost of materials (chainsaw, chainsaw oil, petrol, chains/bars), the relevant industrial wage, travel costs, distance of the plot from the road. It is the market that dictates these prices, and my Department is not in control of setting a market price. Contracts are awarded on criteria set out in the original request for tender. The figure given is a direct division of the overall amount tendered and divided by the hectares involved, and each site is unique in terms of the age of the rhododendron, density, durability and access.