Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I have so many questions that I do not know whether I will be able to get them out straight. I thank the witnesses for their very interesting presentations. In particular, I was taken by the observation by Dr. Moran to the effect that we do not have time and that we just need to get moving on this. A great deal of work and research are being done, and various pilot projects have been pursued for many years. However, there is no bringing all of that together in one plan. As Professor Joosten stated, a peatland master plan or something like that would be ideal. A point I made last week is that the State is the largest landowner in the country. If we are trying to do something very quickly with as much ease as possible, surely the State should be looking at its own land first in order to identify land that has high potential for rewetting, and just rewet it. There should be a blanket ban on doing anything other than rewetting on that State land. While that is happening and settling, there should be development of that peatland master plan and work with stakeholders to try to implement other measures. As a quick first move, however, the State should be rewetting its land. I invite the witnesses to comment on that.