Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 February 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

Preservation of the Biodiversity and Ecosystems of Peatlands: Discussion

Mr. Stuart Conaty:

As our CEO outlined our strategy is, in the first instance, to consolidate our existing businesses. We have to react so as to ensure future sustainability. Deputy Ó Cuív said that where we stop providing one crust of bread, we need to look to provide another and we are very conscious of that. We are actively looking at other opportunities and we have made the announcement to transition out of peat over the course of the next decade. That gives us time to find other opportunities, such as in aquaculture and inland fisheries, and we will not waste that time. I am not sure where the seven years come from and it is not a timeline to which we would subscribe. A pilot aquaculture facility is in operation in County Offaly. We have started on the process and we will do everything we can to move it forward, as we will with other opportunities.

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