Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has had this foisted upon it. I have had many battles with Departments down through the years, but I will say one thing about Mr. Lucas and I will be very clear about it. I have found him helpful to work with. For the sake of the peat industry, rural Ireland and the workers around this country, until something better and more efficient comes along in ten or 15 years, which will grow plants and do everything else, people will be willing to change but until we get to that point, we cannot just knock off the light. I ask Mr. Lucas, and I know he cannot do it on his own, to first get a solution for this year and then people can go out. To be brutally honest, people are not going to wait all year for a committee to decide whether they can come or go when the weather is fine. They will go out on the bogs, it as simple as that.