Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the witnesses. My main question is about carbon credits, but I just want to go back on the Arterial Drainage Act. Mr. Ó Brolcháin mentioned raised water levels in Indonesia and it being an involuntary method. The key question for us at the moment is how much can be done voluntarily to bring us to where we need to be and how much has to be enforced. If changes are made to the Arterial Drainage Act, will we make the changes that we need to our water level whereby we will escape the worst impacts? Is it essential that we make those changes to make sure that we are on the right track?

I understand from what the witnesses have said about carbon credits is that the verification process is the problem. What are the blockages as they see it to getting the verification process right in Ireland? Why is it not happening? I know we are not as far along the path across the globe as perhaps we would like to be.

My third question relates to the ACRES project. The speakers may have referred to smaller parcels of land but I am conscious that there are significant portions of peatland in some parts of my constituency. I was in Conamara theas last night where there is a lot of peatland. As has been stated, farmers want to do what is right for nature and to be paid for it.

That is what we want to see. These are small enough pockets of money, but are substantial on top of the farming activities. However, the emphasis seems to be on biodiversity. What influence have our witnesses had on the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, project? At the moment, that seems to be the key way that farmers are being engaged with, particularly across the west. Many of the examples we were shown were around peatland restoration on smaller pockets of land.