Ms Sadhbh O'Neill:

I thank Senator Higgins for the question. The land use review report explains the science extremely well and a layperson can follow it easily enough. It makes the distinction between avoided emissions and removals, which is another distinction we need to keep clear in our minds. It gets quite complex. With peatlands, you might be adding soil - if a rewetting project is successful, my understanding is at best a few millimetres per annum. However, avoiding emissions, by blocking drains, for example, and preventing the loss of carbon, can result in faster mitigation. In essence, we are being asked with the land use review to consider biodiversity, water quality and carbon altogether and we should not lose sight of the co-benefits of peatland rewetting for other areas.

On the economic aspect of it, it is worth recalling that today, in the Irish Independent, it is reported that Ireland could be facing fines of up to €8 billion for failure to meet the renewable energy targets, and this is an area where Ireland performs reasonably well. It is quite clear that every sector has obligations and that there are penalties that will apply if we fail to meet those targets.