Mr. Gerry Ryan:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for giving us the opportunity to make a presentation today on Bord na Móna's land use. As the Chairman said, I am responsible for land and property at Bord na Móna. I am joined by my two colleagues, Mr. Pat Ring, head of property development, and Dr. Catherine Farrell, senior ecologist.

As the Chairman and the committee will know, Bord na Móna is 95% owned by the State and was originally established in 1946 to develop some of Ireland's extensive peat resources, primarily at that time for fuel and energy. Today, we are active in a number of industrial sectors, including conventional and renewable energy generation, commercial and domestic fuels, horticultural growing media, wastewater treatment and air pollution abatement, as well as a resource recovery facility in north Kildare.

We employ a core workforce of approximately 1,800 people and a seasonable workforce of around 600 people during the summer months. Last year our average employment numbers were just over 2,000 and the turnover made by the company was just over €425 million. Our head office is located in Newbridge and we have operations in Ireland, the UK and the US. We sell our products into more than 20 countries.

Today's meeting is related to maximising the usage and potential of land so we will focus primarily on our lands, in particular our views on potential uses for cutaway bogs. Our lands extend in total to about 80,000 hectares throughout the country, mainly located in the midlands but in some other areas, particularly north-west Mayo. This vast resource is characterised by fragmentation. We have in excess of 130 individual bogs, many of which comprise numerous individual land parcels. We have made a submission to the committee and, in addition, we have submitted two reports that we believe are relevant for the committee's consideration. One is entitled the Strategic Framework for the Future Use of Peatlands and the second is our biodiversity action plan. I will hand over to Mr. Ring who will expand further on our land bank and plans for future land use options. He will be followed by Dr. Farrell who will provide more detail on our bog restoration projects and ecosystem services. We will take any questions that arise during the meeting.