Mr. Brian Lucas:

This came up the last day I was before the committee with officials from two other Departments. An assistant secretary from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications indicated then that, as the Minister of State has said, a new consent regime would require primary legislation and would take time to prepare and present to the Oireachtas. There would also be a need to introduce new systems and processes by whatever statutory body was given responsibility for such a new system.

Only at that point could the regulation process begin under a new consent system which we have talked about before, namely, leave to apply followed by substitute consent, an application for planning permission and, if necessary, an integrated pollution control licence from the EPA. That is why the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications indicated to the committee that following the route of a single consent regime would not allow for an earlier resumption of large-scale or commercial peat extraction than through engaging with the current dual consent system.

Deputy Kehoe referred to harvesting a small amount of peat. I ask what we mean by "a small amount of peat". The previous day I was before the committee, I referred to the regime for the exempt development provisions for sites under 30 ha, which the Minister of State also talked about in his opening statement. As he said, there is no way around derogating from the environmental impact assessment directive and the appropriate assessment directive. Screening for both of these directives would have to be part of any new alternative consent regime and there is no way around that.