Dr. Eimear Cotter:

I will pick up two points to add to what Dr. Crowe stated. First, on the data centres, I cannot add anything in terms of the nub of the question and the overall national position. However, from the EPA's perspective, I can tell the committee that we continue to provide the evidence on Ireland's future emissions. In looking out to 2020 and beyond, we work in the impact of data centres. I would make the point that our national emission projections include the impact of data centres. Many of those data centres fall within our environmental regulatory regimes, such as the EU emissions trading system, ETS, that regulates CO2 emissions, albeit with a very low price signal at present, and more recently, within the Medium Combustion Plant Directive. That is by way of supporting information. I recognise it is not getting to the nub of the question.

On the peat question, we have been consistent. Our director general spoke at the Citizens' Assembly. We have mentioned in the state of the environment report that we need to move away from fossil fuels and we need to do that with a greater sense of urgency. As we have heard, over 90% of our energy consumption comes from fossil fuels. That includes, of course, carbon intensive and inefficient fuels, such as peat. We can come back with more detailed information on the impact of that.

I will hand over to Mr. Treacy, who has been going through our large national inventory report to give some estimate of the impact of peat extraction and combustion currently. They will be rough figures and we can come back to the committee later with more information.