Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I welcome the officials and thank them for their two comprehensive submissions. I have a couple of points and questions. They are specific to each of the two areas, namely, the rewetting of bogs and horticultural peat, although there is a bit of a link between the two. Starting with the rewetting of bogs, I seek some clarification from the witnesses further to the contents of their submission. In the larger scheme of things, with the anticipated sequestration and storage of carbon, who do the officials see getting credit for the carbon, going forward? This is a big debate in the agriculture sector about whether the carbon that is sequestered or stored in Irish lands would be accredited to the sector. I would like some comment on that from the officials. To whom do they see the credit being given?

On another point, I might quote a paragraph from the officials' submission:

The Government’s approach, as set out in the National Peatlands Strategy, is to recognise that domestic turf cutters have a traditional right to cut turf and that this right is balanced with the conservation objectives for protected bogs and the legal obligations on the State.

I would like the officials to comment on that, based on the fact that at the moment, Bord na Móna, which is answerable to the Department in this regard, is not issuing licences to people who have turbary rights or who need a Bord na Móna licence to cut to turf on what were traditionally their family banks, which are leased from Bord na Móna. Why are the officials not intervening there to back up what their submission states?

On the horticultural peat, the comprehensive report the officials have given us and all the work done to date is quoting investment and research into alternatives, while at the same time we have ceased production. Is that not putting the cart before the horse? I have the two reports in my hand and while I see fully and welcome the possibilities of carbon sequestration and storage by wetting our peatlands, I cannot see the justification for the current situation, nor justify it to members of the public who question it. Last week, I spoke to a haulier who specialises in peat haulage and he is currently drawing peat from the port of Drogheda down to the south of the country. This is peat that has come into this country from, I think, Lithuania, transported on a diesel-burning ship, loaded onto his lorry and transported down the country because the officials' Department cannot or did not intervene in the scenario through the courts and through the planning process, which has horticultural peat production ceased at the moment. This despite the officials openly saying in their statement that we are now, and only now, investing in research for alternatives. That is certainly putting the cart before the horse and a serious contradiction between the two submissions from the Department. I would like a little more elaboration on that point also.