Mr. Leslie Carberry:

No. An Bord Pleanála ruled that planning permission was required in respect of peat extraction on specific sites. That was challenged through the courts up to 2018. In December 2018, as I understand it, that legal challenge was exhausted and at that point it was the law of the land that peat extraction over 30 ha would require substitute consent if the necessary consents were not already in place.

The Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Environment, Climate and Communications brought forward the 2019 regulations, as they are referred to, which moved peat extraction from the planning system exclusively into the EPA licensing system. More importantly, that did away with the requirement for substitute consent. That is the key issue. It essentially tried to do what Deputies and the industry are asking for today. It got rid of that requirement for regularising previously unauthorised development and, as soon as the regulations were signed, they were promptly challenged by an environmental NGO. The case went to the High Court.