Mr. Tim Cullinan:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to appear today to deal with the Bord na Móna issue. I thank Senator Boyhan for his comments on our submission.

Deputy Fitzmaurice is right. This is a major challenge for all of us. It is a substantial change with up to 33,000 ha or up to 80 sites being rewetted by Bord na Móna. It is obviously a massive challenge. We have had considerable engagement with Bord na Móna. We are coming out of the year we had last year and are still in the pandemic. We need engagement with farmers and the only we can do that is on a Zoom call. Bord na Móna's first mistake was taking on this major operation in the middle of a pandemic. It is a major change but so be it.

I share Deputy Fitzmaurice's concerns around drains and how drainage will be maintained. It is one thing getting this operation up and running but we must ensure that proper maintenance will be ongoing in this area. On the proposal we have from Bord na Móna, our engagement goes back to that of our deputy president, Mr. Brian Rush, who is on the line. He engaged with farmers as far back as last summer, on the sites, in the Offaly area in particular. We had a meeting with the CEO of Bord na Móna and his staff late last year and we formed a working group out of that. Our people are participating in it with Bord na Móna staff.

Drainage is a major concern. Bord na Móna has proposed an external drain around the perimeter of the bog, which will drain into the rivers in the area. As our submission states, we want a hydrological assessment to be done of lands in that area. If lands are impacted, farmers will have to be compensated in those areas. Deputy Browne made a point on the threat of flooding. Of course there is a threat. If this work is done, there will have to be ongoing remedial work done.

Deputy Browne also asked about turbary rights. We have already raised that issue with Bord na Móna. Farmers who have been harvesting turf in the area for years have to be protected as well.

I make a final point on carbon storage. Bord na Móna has stated that anything up to 100 million tonnes of carbon can be sequestered in these bogs. That is important for the country. We are all part of a climate debate and we, as farmers, are part of that. We are the only sector that can be part of the solution.

By that I mean in particular farmers' lands that adjoin Bord na Móna lands. Bord na Móna is now setting up equipment to measure the carbon being sequestered in its bogs. It would be important also to look at the carbon that is being sequestered in farmers' lands in those regions. It could help the community and it would be another income farmers in that area could derive. The working group is looking at that with Bord na Móna.