Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Thank God the turf cutting industry is alive and well, in case anyone thinks it is gone. It will not be gone for a long time. Mr. Boland is talking about the mushroom industry with respect to Rochfortbridge. We should engage with people involved in the mushroom industry. My understanding is that Rochfortbridge is going to be turned into a lake, correct me if I am wrong. You could not fill the hole there unless you were to bring all the stuff you needed from ten Dublins. It is a fair depth and it is good-quality sand. The bog will be in the way when it is closed off. A prudent person would almost embrace whomever came for peat that is in it, particularly in view of the value of that peat.

I will discuss the matter with the other members of the committee. I have had some contact with those in the industry. They have engaged with people in respect of the science aspect to which I refer, the buffer zone and all of that. Did the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine commission Irish Rural Link to do this? My understanding is that it did, but the biggest problem we have is that this comes within the remit of a different Department. I refer to the Department with responsibility for planning, which is going to have to work on the system I am talking about. I am suggesting that if owners of bogs tick boxes A, B and C, if they show hydrological and ecological evidence, along with information on their buffer zones, they would be exempt. Something will have to be written out clearly by someone in the planning section of the relevant Department and will then have to be given to planners throughout the country. It will have to be there in black and white. We had to do this in the bogs. We had to make sure, scientifically, hydrologically, ecologically and so forth, that if someone took a case, we had all the proof necessary to be able to beat them out the door. We had to make sure we had our stuff lined up.