Mr. Niall Curley:

That is exactly what it is designed for. It is meant to target agricultural peatland to reduce the amount of active peatland used for extraction or exploited for agriculture or forestry.

This is just a proposal that came out back on 22 June. It has, however, been written over the past two years. I received a leak and some colleagues and I really pushed for something of this variety to be added to the law or to the proposal in general to acknowledge the amount of peat extraction areas it will be necessary to be re-wet here and to allow that, because of the sheer magnitude of agricultural and forestry peatlands that will be targeted.

It came up with this figure back in June. It started back in January, February, March, originally, and then it was back with this 20% in June which we were happy to see in the first place because it was movement in general. However, this is still a law that can be audited. It will be audited a lot. I will wait for Deputy Fitzmaurice to come back because he wants to hear about the specific timings nd where we are with specific institutions. However, I can repeat them.

When it comes to how it will be audited, the opinion and wish, specifically of green NGOs, is to completely remove that 20% in the first place, because allowing that diminished target is adverse to what they want. There is already a target completely on wetlands and their habitats, that is, raised and blanket bogs and calcareous fens - you name it. However, this is about actively-used bogs or peatlands that are used for peat extraction, agriculture or forestry. This is what this specific target of up to 70% to be restored by 2050 is about.

There will be a fight within the Parliament and the Council with regard to the level of this by the time it ends. When it is voted on at the end, I expect it to be quite an altered proposal because of peatlands.