Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am struck by the same issue raised by Deputy Pringle, namely, the mismatch in terms of scale of ambition. I thank Mr. Lucas and Dr. Renou-Wilson for their presentations. Dr. Renou-Wilson spoke about 16,000 ha that make up the 53 special areas of conservation that together would store 28 million tonnes of carbon. Mr. Lucas spoke about 1,800 ha being worked on in 2020 and 28,000 tonnes of carbon. I agree it is crucial to move to the wider issue of our peatlands strategy. If we properly resourced and scaled up our interventions, simply looking at only raised bog areas, we could potentially look at 28 million tonnes of storage versus 28,000 tonnes of storage. It is quite a difference.

I apologise but I will focus on protected areas because I am concerned that they may not continue to be protected areas. It was interesting to hear the specific numbers indicated by Mr. Lucas. The intention is to dedesignate 46 of the currently recognised natural heritage areas. Am I correct in saying that 46 of the raised bog natural heritage areas, which are currently recognised as areas of natural heritage, are a tiny fraction of the peatland in this country with national protected status? Is it correct to say that 46 of 75, or more than half, are due for dedesignation under the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2016? I raise this because Mr. Lucas raised the issue of the legislation. I suggested it may have been appropriate to wait to deal with that Bill until these hearings were completed, but this relates to policy.

Is it not the case that even a simple re-wetting of all the current natural heritage areas would have a benefit in terms of carbon sequestration nationally? I am talking about the 46 affected by the proposal for dedesignation. Would it be better to re-wet them and keep that network in play, regardless of whether we add new natural heritage areas? I refer to the process around this. Leaving aside any amendments - it is not what we will discuss today, although I agree with others in the Houses who saw them as troubling - we can look at the Government proposal, which is that the conservation value of a raised bog takes into account a comparison made between the area, range, habitat structure, function and ecological features of the bog and those of one or more other raised bogs. My specific concern is the way the Department will decide which bogs are to be dedesignated and where protection will be removed. It is through comparison with others, so what will they be compared with? Will they be compared with the full network of natural heritage areas or special area of conservation bogs? Will they be compared with the 12 bogs focused on this year? Will they be used as a tool to justify the dedesignation of other natural heritage areas?