Dr. Florence Renou-Wilson:

The restoration plan was critical. It was a lot of work to take on and this is the first step. It has to be done the right way. Mr. Lucas was right to mention that it has to be done in consultation with people, which takes time. They do not have the resources for that. It will be critical because Ireland has the very last intact or natural raised bogs and blanket bog. The last resources in Europe are in Ireland. As such, we need that. This is critical and it will have a huge impact because it concentrates on those SACs that are the jewel of the bogs.

I must say something about CAP. Speaking as a soil scientist, out of all the bad guys out there - and cutover bogs were mentioned - peat used for agriculture is the worst emitter. It is the top out of all land-use forms over the whole planet. If one takes the list of all possible land uses, this is up there. This is as bad as planting for palm oil in Indonesia. Anything that involves supporting agriculture on dry peat soils is nonsense from a climate perspective as these are the really bad guys. One needs to start there. There is quite a bit in this country that we could address very quickly. Because these soils have been fertilised, they emit not only carbon but nitrous oxides. They are double enemies of the climate.