Mr. Gerry Ryan:

As I said earlier, we are governed by the integrated pollution prevention control, IPPC, licences issued by the EPA. That requires us to file a rehabilitation and restoration plan for each of our bog areas. We have 130 bog areas throughout the country, only some of which are encompassed by the clean energy hub project. That is only approximately 20,000 ha of the 80,000 ha we possess. In the past year we filed a rehabilitation plan for each of the 130 bog areas with the EPA. That includes a hydrological assessment of the bogs. The rehabilitation plan covers all of that in respect of the future use of those peatlands after peat harvesting is finished and they become cutaway.

There is some scope for flood attenuation along the Shannon using our bogs. It is important to put that into context. A few years ago we spoke to this committee about the serious flooding along the Shannon in 2010. Much of the midlands was flooded at the time, including many of our peatlands. Although the extent of the water was substantial and the extent of the peatlands appears substantial, the real contribution it could make to attenuation of flooding on the Shannon is relatively small, between 5% and 10%. Almost by default we understood in 2010 that it was possible and was a potential future use for the peatlands along the Shannon. It is not that big a factor in flood attenuation apart from the Shannon and the Suck.