We will attempt to deal with each one. I would like a minute or two to set the scene also. The disastrous situation in the construction market in 2008 and 2009 will be no secret to people in this room. Coillte has been providing products, directly or indirectly, into that sector. The demand for sawn timber in Ireland fell from its peak at approximately 1.8 million cu. m to fewer than 500,000 to 600,000 cu. m. The current demand is less than one third of what it was at the peak.
I am very proud to say that despite that downturn, we have managed to keep the forestry sector in Ireland — from the forest to the sawmill sector to the users to the export of that timber — working through this difficult downturn. The majority of Irish sawmills were on a two or three day week this time last year. Now each of them — Deputy Sheehan mentioned one in Cork — is on full production. That is a positive story in itself.
Coillte owned manufacturing plants, including that at Deputy McGrath's backdoor, Medite in Clonmel, and SmartPly OSB in Kilkenny. They have sold their product up to early July. Again, it is very heavily export oriented. The UK is a significant market for us. While we see some fragile signs of recovery, we would have to be concerned about recent announcements about £6.5 billion coming out of that economy and what impact it might have. Nonetheless, this is a significant business and we are running it in somewhat difficult times.
We are delivering approximately 100 truck loads of Irish timber every day to the ports on the eastern side of the country for export. We are selling high end products for construction internationally — not only in the UK, but in France, the Benelux countries and parts of the Nordic sector.
In 2009, Coillte spent €132 million in Ireland on goods and services. What is interesting about Coillte is that a significant chunk of that was spent in areas in which other companies do not operate, that is, in the rural part of this country. Of that €132 million, €40 million was spent on our very accomplished and important contractor base.
It is in that context I want to deal with some of the issues raised. Coillte employs 1,036 people. Approximately, 150 are employed in Medite and 150 in SmartPly. The Coillte forest — the legacy business — has 520 employees and the remainder are employed in various sales and marketing activities. We made significant progress in running our business, delivering value to our shareholder and, in this current economic climate, providing a significant amount of employment right through all the aspects of this forest logistics challenge. From forest gate to harvesting contractors to haulage to road building to forest maintenance, it is a significant spend on Coillte's part and we are committed to it.
We have 6,500 properties in every county and we take our responsibility as a neighbour of practically every parish very seriously. Whether it is a farmer, a householder or, as Deputy Ferris mentioned, a cottage, we engage in a very aggressive way with them. We talk to our neighbours, whether in regard to a land sale, felling activities or bringing timber on a road in south Tipperary or wherever. These people are informed of these operations, as are the local authorities. For example, in regard to roads, we agree the haul routes with the local authorities, we agree the loading limits and various other things and we deal with those issues. I say that as a general way to frame the economic challenge we are currently confronted with and how we are responding to it.
Until December of last year, Coillte's borrowing limit was the same as was put in the statute when Coillte was founded under the Forestry Act 1988. I joined this company in 2006 and since 2002 there has been ongoing dialogue with the various Departments to which Coillte reported during that period, whether the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources or the Department Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. I ask members to forgive us for that oversight in that we have been having this dialogue with our shareholder for almost eight years. It is important to understand the statutory borrowing limit. I will ask Mr. Gerry Egan, the company secretary, to deal with the structure of those matters.