I wish to return to the Coillte scheme that involves international funds buying up tracts of private land and Coillte planting and managing those lands. The Tánaiste spoke about the environmental benefits but the type of forestry that Coillte specialises in is not necessarily environmentally beneficial, at least not by international standards. There is a lot of monoculture rather than broadleaf planting going on and that is mainly what Coillte has done to date. My question is simple. The Tánaiste seemed to support a review. Will such a review take place and will Coillte desist from any further engagement with the fund until such time as this review takes place? Is the review happening or not? Will Coillte stop its engagement with this until it the review is complete?

In terms of the specific fund itself, Coillte has legally entered into an arrangement and had the powers to do so. The review I am talking about relates to broader policy, looking at the development of alternative models. We have to avoid a monocultural approach but there will be a need for commercial forestry to underpin the timber industry itself. In the future, both Coillte and the Government are saying that 50% of all new forests will have to be native woodlands. That is the approach.

Is the Tánaiste saying there will be no change to this scheme?

Not to this specific arrangement but the Ministers are meeting.