Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I was under the impression 20 years ago that all of this land would be put to some commercial use, but what the witnesses seem to be indicating is that much of the land will return to some semi-natural state and that we will have wetlands, scrublands and so on. Is it the intention to use these lands as environmental areas and areas which people will study - in other words, as a national resource without a particular crop? I accept a certain amount of forestry is being done but I am talking about the areas that will be left in their natural states and that these will become an environmental resource. What proportion of the total land do the witnesses see as winding up either as wetlands or as other kinds of environmental areas but not cropped in any way?

Europe wants all these SACs and if so many people are so interested in preserving them, presumably people will be interested in looking at them, walking across them and studying them. We can bring all sorts of universities in and do long course on the biodiversity of Irish bogs and raised bogs and so on. I understand we will wind up with cutaway bog that will return to some kind of regenerative state. Bog that was never cut is a very high quality SAC and well worth protecting because it is very scarce in the European context. I mention all the things wetlands bring.

I do not know if it is an appropriate question to ask witnesses but in view of the land bank left and the nature of that land bank, would I be right to think that only a large semi-State body like Bord na Móna could possibly handle this, in particular since it will not result in a very direct commercial benefit? In other words, the benefit might be more a national pay-off rather than a pay-off for the company. Would the witnesses comment on that issue that these lands will not give the company a direct pay-off but, of course, they will be of huge national importance if we are to have all of this biodiversity, carbon sinks and so on which are important nationally but will not necessarily pay the company?