Ms Doreen King:

I thank the committee members. We issued a graphic and if it is available, I will refer members to it to describe our proposals. When Bord na Móna started peat production, it excavated drains. The purpose of the drains was to remove the water off the bog quickly. The production fields between those drains were cambered, so there was a high point, the water flowed into the drains and then was removed from the bog. That was in order that we could produce peat because the water would have impeded that.

What we are doing now is trying to revert to the original state of the bogs. We are trying to hold the water on the bog and to delay the run-off of the water. We are trying to get the water to the surface of the bog. We are not trying to flood the bogs. Dr. McCorry will be able to explain from an ecology point of view the benefits of having the water on the surface. We are putting in a series of peat dams. We block the production drains. If members look on their graphic, they can see the faint lines in the first slide. They are the production drains in the bogs that were excavated by Bord na Móna 40 or 50 years ago. They are the drains that we will be blocking. There will be frequent blocks in the drains. We will be levelling the fields so they are flat and consequently, the rain that falls on the bogs will sit on the fields for longer rather than disappearing off the bogs as quickly as it would have.

Any of the main drains that are around the perimeter of the bog or drains that flow through the bog to provide drainage to land upstream will not be blocked in order that there will not be an impact on adjoining land. In response to a question from Senator Daly, we have appointed hydrologists as external consultants to carry out an assessment on every bog. They are assessing the impact of the rewetting proposals on adjoining land and they are advising mitigation measures to prevent any impact. They will identify if there is land that may be vulnerable. If that is the case, we will provide a boundary drain and if we have to, we will pull back our rehabilitation from that area to ensure that we do not impact on adjoining land. Bord na Móna does not want to cause any impacts to farmers and we do not intend to cause any impacts to farmers. That is why we have the external hydrologists advising us in that regard.

If members look at the graph, they can see the blue line on the second slide. This is a bog in County Tipperary. The red dots are the drain blocks that were installed in all those drains. We are trying to retain the water in the centre of the bog and trying to delay the water leaving the bog. If there is a severe rainfall event, the water will be slower to leave the bog because it will not have a drainage system in the centre of the bog to get rid of it. We are maintaining the drainage system around the edge of the bog, so as the water levels rise in the bog, once they get to the edge that drainage system will still carry the water in the way it always would have. We can see there is fertile land around the bog and it will not be impacted by our plan. I hope that explains the drainage system.