Dr. Ciarán O'Keeffe:

We agree with what Deputy Fitzmaurice said about bringing people with us. There is wide recognition in that regard. Some of the really big successes in nature conservation have been in the Burren programme which started off as a live project. We have one going in County Kerry on the pearl mussel. We had AranLIFE, which was finished a few months ago and is being replaced under the EIP scheme. All of those projects are about harvesting the farm knowledge of the landowner and using it to get to where we want to get to and, going back to the point made about compensation versus payment, paying them for the service they provide.

The Deputy asked if we recognised that blanket bogs were generally more tolerant of limited cutting. We do. It depends on issues such as topography. Sliabh Tooey was mentioned. There was a serious landslide a few years ago. It followed on immediately from sausage-machine cutting along the slope.