Ms Suzanne Nally:

I might follow on from that in relation to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, restoration programme. In terms of the impacts on surrounding lands and how certain we can be of low impacts as such, for our protected raised bog restoration programme extensive hydrological analysis was carried out in advance to understand and predict the water flow off and around these bogs. We do surveys on a bog by bog basis and consult with local landowners as well and then decide whether to review the restoration plans. We might decide to not put in place a number of peat dams based on concerns of local landowners. We are trying to rewet the bog itself and not the surrounding landscape at all. To help allay concerns, we have developed drainage management plans for every one of the raised bogs special area of conservation sites and also a number of the raised bog national heritage areas, NHAs, which are designated under national legislation.

As for what the drainage management plan involves, we engaged consultants who surveyed each bog, consulted the local landowners to identify any flooding issues or historical flooding issues, analysed the drainage network, set out any impediments to the drainage channels surrounding the bog and put in place a number of recommendations to maintain the drainage going forward to ensure that there would not be any impact on the conservation objectives of the site or surrounding lands.

These plans are being finalised. We will be going back to the landowners who provided input into these plans and having further consultation on those plans as well. When we are developing our restoration plans, we are taking into account the recommendations of each drainage management plan.