Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and I welcome our guests today. I thank them for coming into the committee.

Some of my colleagues noted earlier that this is a sad story. I would like to put on the record that the work of Bord na Móna is not a sad story at all. It is a very positive story from recent years. The company has shown leadership and bravery in adopting its brown to green strategy. Notwithstanding the challenges, and there are challenges, nobody would pretend there are not because there certainly are, my colleagues have alluded to them, and it is only right they seek to explore the solutions to them, it should be acknowledged that Bord na Móna is one of the leading companies in the State in this significant and important transition we have to go through.

I commend the work by Mr. Breen and his colleagues and their efforts to capture carbon. He mentioned in his statement that 100 million tonnes is being locked in. That is the right thing to do. We should not seek to release that carbon. If we did, it would make it very difficult for every other sector. The right thing is to try to keep that carbon in the ground. Of course, it is 100 million tonnes, but it could increase as the biodiversity develops and as sequestration will naturally increase beyond 100 million tonnes. That figure is between five and ten times the annual emissions of the agriculture sector in Ireland. It is not at all an insignificant figure. It is very significant. We should not be blind to that. in doing that work, Bord na Móna is making huge inroads in restoring biodiversity. We have a biodiversity crisis as well as a climate crisis. In pursuing that strategy, Bord na Móna is addressing both the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis, so it should be commended for that.

The challenges are clear. When we try to transition and make big changes, as we have to, challenges are going to arise. They are certainly doing so in the area of home heating, where the supply of peat for briquettes will come to an end, I think, in 2024. Of course there is a challenge there. There is a challenge in power generation because the power stations have closed. Every day we must address how we will provide the power this country needs. To be fair to Bord na Móna, it is a leader in that area as well. The company has done extraordinary work in developing its renewable energy potential. In closing its peat-fired stations, it has sought to address the energy deficit and it has driven on with the development of wind, solar and, more recently, with the very interesting plan to produce green hydrogen. I say fair play to Bord na Móna

It is a leader in this area. The more renewables we can deliver, then the lower the cost of energy to consumers. We are not going back to a situation where we generate electricity from burning peat and it is a not a good way to do so.

Horticulture is the third challenge and it has taken up most of this discussion. There are solutions for home heating such as retrofitting that reduces the need for energy in people's homes. Retrofitting is expensive work but the State can do it in the timeframe in which transition happens. Horticulture is a more difficult task and I welcome the statement that Bord na Móna is working with an independent expert. I have a lot of faith in Bord na Móna and believe it will do everything that it can to get through the difficulties that will exist for some time to come. I commend Bord na Móna on its work, leadership and bravery in stepping into a very difficult space.

I welcome the agreement between Bord na Móna and ICL. It is a sign that Bord na Móna seeks to solve a very difficult problem. I understand that it might be premature for the delegation to give me a good answer to my following questions given that we are at the coalface of research. What volume of horticultural peat at the suitable grade might be produced in the coming years? Does Bord na Móna think that it will lead to the challenge in the horticultural sector, particularly in the mushroom sector, being resolved? What is the timeframe for the output of this research and production?