Mr. Niall Curley:

In Ireland, it will come under the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It is up to that committee to give an response and an opinion from the Oireachtas. Each member state is written to by the Commission and asked to check if this overreaches. It is the principle of subsidiarity to see if it goes down properly, is proportional and is not overreaching national laws. The Deputy is correct that Sweden has written back stating this is overreaching as the EU does not have full competence in forest matters. It has a partial competence. The Commission will argue back that this has changed as a result of a recent court ruling that found it has a competence when it comes to environmental matters. However, this is not the most reasonable answer given that 30% of all Sweden's forestry is under peatland and more than likely will need to be rewetted, which is a huge part of its economy.