Dr. Catherine Farrell:

We are back to the question of having an inventory of what we have and setting clear targets around our peatlands. The peatlands per seare not included in the national inventory reporting and we must address that. If we were to start including them, how would it affect our accounting results? We need to align the data we have, identify the gaps and inform the process so we can make a proper and appropriate assessment of the peatlands we have.

On the restoration work that is ongoing and whether we can up the ante and scale up, the Deputy mentioned the work in Bord na Móna. My sense is that work is being well supported. Let us remind ourselves that this is approximately 5% of the total peatland resource that we have. Coillte certainly has potential and it should be supported. The Coillte Nature initiative was set up to take on these legacy areas that do not have any commercial value per sebut are now recognised as having amenity value and can be converted for the purposes of peatland restoration for water and climate benefit and biodiversity value. It is something that should be supported.

The real wins come with farming communities, as that is where the majority of lands lie. They are outside the semi-State bodies. We must support these communities in stopping degradation even before we move to restoration. The degradation must stop, which means reducing grazing or even removing grazing animals from uplands entirely. Then we must start looking at how they can be supported through farm support schemes and CAP measures to implement restoration.

There is no big bang solution but we must work in a way that supports communities that are biting at the bit to get involved with wetland and peatland restoration. That is a framework to follow in deciding what we must do in moving on with restoration.