Will the Minister accept that in many areas where planting has been done by the Department there is no liaison — we all accept that it is good to have more trees planted — between his Department and the Department of Agriculture in regard to the amount of bogs that have been taken over? There is a serious problem in many areas of the west through overplanting. No consideration has been given to the provision of turbary. I should like to ask the Minister if a cost benefit analysis has been carried out as to whether it would be of more benefit to develop marginal land for farmers in backward areas or to plant trees on it.

A cost benefit analysis has been carried out on comparative figures by An Foras Talúntais. I do not have the detailed information with me, but I can tell the Deputy that on marginal land — I mean marginal land in the technical sense; we are not talking about one cow per acre but one cow per ten acres which would pertain in our part of the country — the return on timber grown would be greater than the return on milk production. That figure has been given to us by the experts and it is a question of getting the message across.