Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials from the Departments for being here today. A lot of what I was going to ask about has been covered. I mean that loosely because, while the questions have been asked, they have not necessarily been answered to my satisfaction. I have a couple of questions. I note that Mr. Nugent has said there is no dispute between the Departments. We would probably be a lot nearer to a solution if the three Departments banged their heads together and if there was a bit of a dispute between them. That could be part of the problem. There is a bit of a laissez-faireattitude and a sense that it is everybody else's problem. Has anybody sat down and looked at what is happening on the ground? We can blame the High Court ruling and say that it caused a problem but the High Court ruling just set standards. What caused the problem was Bord na Móna walking off the pitch without bothering to follow through with the new standards for applications. That is accepted. Bord na Móna is now rewetting bogs. It walked away from them practically overnight. I presume many of these bogs will need manicuring before they are in an ideal position for rewetting. That manicuring may or may not require the removal of peat. Has anyone sat down with Bord na Móna and asked it to do an analysis of the bogs before wetting them to see if there is a surplus layer of peat that will need removal? Could that be used to solve, in the short term, the problem facing the horticulture people as part of a just transition while we are waiting for the development of these alternatives?

With regard to the applications for areas greater than 30 ha and areas greater than 50 ha, are there many, or any, applications in the system? If there are, how long have they been in the system and how long is it expected to be before a decision is made on them? How many applications from the private sector have been granted with the extraction now up and running? What kind of lifespan do they have? That is it for the moment. Depending on the answers, I might have a couple more questions.