Mr. Leslie Carberry:

It was brought forward by the two Departments. The two regulations have to work in conjunction. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage exempted peat extraction from the planning system and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications said it would be regulated exclusively through planning.

That was struck down by the High Court on the basis of two grounds. First, it was done by secondary legislation and the court ruled that it should have been done by primary legislation because it cut across the will of the Oireachtas. Second, and more fundamentally for the discussion here, the court was clear that, regardless of which consent process peat extraction was covered by at national level, it has to be regulated in compliance with the EIA directive. This meant that where there was previously unauthorised development it had to go through a process like substitute consent.

I can go to the process steps of what substitute consent requires. That is unavoidable.