Mr. Brian Lucas:

As I said, the national peatlands strategy states: "Ireland will devise and implement a system of management that will ensure that [domestic] turf-cutting on blanket bogs SACs continues in such a way that will not threaten the [ecological] integrity of the sites." The strategy also indicates that peat extraction on blanket bog NHAs is to be addressed in tandem with the elaboration of the approach to the future regulation of such activities on the SACs.