Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. They are only doing their jobs. It is difficult for me to stomach what I have heard at this meeting regarding what is happening in the midlands, especially because, although I have always believed the climate changed, I do not subscribe to the reasons being given for that. The decision to close many of these plants within a year as a result of the ruling of An Bord Pleanála, rather than eight or nine years as was supposed to be the case, is one of the worst decisions in recent times.

Shannonbridge and Lanesborough and all of Littleton is gone. There are still thousands of acres of bogland left. My grandmother used to say wilful waste makes woeful want. We do not have coal reserves, we do not have gold reserves, we do not have oil reserves like many other countries have, but we had a little bit of bog and I thought that it should be used for as long as it was there. That is not the case now. I am amazed when I hear the way the people are being bought, but the people realise it on the ground. The people of the midlands will realise it very shortly because it is one thing to say one will have jobs for bog rehabilitation for 210 people. How long will those last? As I understand it, rehabilitation could just mean closing drains, turning off pumps and letting more water in and stopping it going out.