Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our contributors for the useful and informative submissions they have made. The one factor everybody has mentioned is the extent and magnitude of the problem and the urgent necessity to find short-term, interim and long-term solutions. It is easy to identify the problem but it is much more difficult to identify alternatives and how they would be operated.

Professor FitzGerald mentioned land use change. Will he elaborate on what suggestions he has, what changes he is speaking about and what changes he would recommend? With regard to peat power generation and stopping the subsidy, our difficulty in Tipperary and the midlands is that communities have been built around it and there are jobs at stake. It would be important that somebody would identify what are the alternatives for usage of our bogland. People will accept change if there is an alternative that creates employment. This is the difficulty. One cannot just stop without doing some research and development work on alternatives.

Mr. Healy recommends reopening the GLAS programme. What is the number of participants in GLAS? How efficient and cost-effective is it? What is the return for the economy? I am a supporter of GLAS and it should be reopened but it is important to elaborate and state the case for it.