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

As I understand it, that legislation on the Irish Statute Book was primarily a labour activation measure but it brought marginal land - much of which consisted of peaty soils, which we now know emit carbon - into agricultural use. I do not want to say it involves a lot of that land. It would be premature to say so because we do not yet have the output of the land use review. That will be done at the end of this year. It seems that this legislation mandated the State to drain a lot of our marginal land, which was peaty. We need to look again at this and there needs to be a review of this legislation. I do not know if Dr. Delgado Rosa has looked at it or if the Directorate-General for Environment, DG ENV, would look at Irish legislation in any detail but this is the main legislation that over the past 50 or 60 years has caused a lot of our land to be drained and, therefore, become an emitter of carbon rather than a store of it. Notwithstanding the emissions caused by the drainage of this land, it is an economic burden on the State. Every year, a lot of money is spent by the State to drain this land. Has the director looked at the Arterial Drainage Act? Is it on his radar at all?