Ms Suzanne Nally:

I do not know is my honest answer. The whole space is evolving and there is a lot of discussion on carbon credits and the peatlands code. As I said, there is no policy in place at the moment but the issue is subject to further cross-governmental and departmental discussions.

In response to the question on premiums, if there are particular impacts on land, by private landowners, the Department is in the process of introducing a financial incentive scheme called the protected raised bog restoration incentive scheme. It is an area-based payment to compensate anyone who facilitates restoration works on their lands or given access to those lands. We are still developing the terms and conditions of the scheme and hope to roll it out on a bog-by-bog basis. We have had the pilot scheme under the living bog project, which is an EU-funded life project and the Department is the co-ordinating beneficiary on 12 special areas of conservation raised bog sites in the Border, midlands and west region.