Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives of Bord na Móna for their presentations. I have two questions, one of which relates to what Deputy Ó Cuív said about the biodiversity element of future land use. Is Bord na Móna obliged to commercialise that or how does it see that developing in the future? It was said that ecosystem services have an economic value. Where does it see that being achieved?

I have a question on biomass production and I was surprised that was not in the presentations. I would have thought Bord na Móna would be ideally placed to carve out a role for itself in terms of the delivery of biomass in the economy. Renewable energy and renewables are something we need to look at for the future. What consideration has been given to the production of biomass in Bord na Móna's future development plans?

I acknowledge that the situation has improved greatly in recent years in terms of being able to use biomass in electricity generation. I see potential for the economy to develop an industry to provide biomass for renewable energy production, particularly electricity production. That would be a lot more productive than using the land for wind energy. The use of land for wind energy and forestry is passive in the context of the role of Bord na Móna. Finding some productive use for the land other than for wind energy would be more advantageous and beneficial to society.