Mr. Niall ? Brolch?in:

I will come in on the wind farm question. We have just recently published a report on this which we can send to the Senator if she wishes. Basically, we looked at three different types of renewable energy in conjunction with peatlands. One is obviously wind, and the others are solar and potentially biomass. We recommended that biomass makes sense in district heating schemes if there is sufficient housing clubbed together to use the potential for such schemes.

That is potentially a good way of alleviating issues regarding the burning of turf and so on for local communities. We would not recommend solar on peatlands because there are issues there. Concerning wind, which was the question asked, we recommend against putting wind farms on pristine peatlands or peatlands in good condition. For badly degraded lands, as some of the Bord na Móna lands are - they are almost down to bare rock - there is a case potentially for siting wind farms there if it helps to fund restoration efforts. It makes sense to take it from something badly degraded by putting windmills on the bare rock and then build up the peatlands around it. That is the only case. It is not a case of taking the best peatland sites and siting windmills in the middle.