Mr. Brian Lucas:

I was asked if it would be possible not to cut peat in bogs because there would be no environmental benefits in blocking the drains. I listened into most of the previous session and many of the points the witnesses made were identified in the issues paper that I referred to and in the review report. What we need to do is to get everybody around the table now in the working group to see what solutions we can come up with. The biggest short-term solution has been identified by Deputies and Senators and by the industry representatives which is what can be done for this season.

It says the annual carbon emissions from horticulture peat are 186,000 tonnes over a 100-week period, which equates to only 0.12% of the total peatland under protection. Has the Department examined the level of decarbonisation resulting from the closure of peatlands that were harvested for horticultural purposes against the carbon footprint involved in importing foreign peat as an alternative? What is the balance of that?