Mr. Fintan Kelly:

I thank Senator Boylan. I come from south Roscommon myself, so I grew up looking across Lough Ree towards those peatlands. I am very familiar with them, and very passionate about what they would bring to the region.

What it exposes is the lack of a proper decision-making framework and accountability for Bord na Móna. At the moment, we see a lot of cutover bogs being targeted for the roll-out of wind farms. While we are strongly supportive of the need for wind farms and more renewables, there are certain sites that are more suitable for wind farm development, and there are some which are suitable for restoration and for the development of habitats and of ecotourism. That particular site is one that really jumps out.

In previous jobs I had, I made submissions, observations and various appeals regarding that particular planning application, that is, the first wind farm application. For example, the northernmost section of that bog in the winter is full of wintering whooper swans, a protected species under the habitats and birds directive. The site directly adjoins the Lough Ree SAC and SPAs. It is an important flight corridor for migrating birds, white-tailed eagles etc., and many species that are particularly susceptible to collision with wind turbines. On the southernmost section of the bog, there was evidence for breeding curlew. There was also evidence for breeding merlin. These are both protected species. Merlin are quite rare in the region because of the absence of large areas of healthy bog.

For me, that particular site points to the lack of accountability and the lack of transparency around how Bord na Móna makes decisions around what sites should be used. That is one of the reasons we are calling on the Government to review the legal mandates. Bord na Móna's legal mandate was established in 1946 under the Turf Development Act. It is a basic economic mandate; it is totally outdated and not fit for purpose in this day and age. As Dr. McGoff said, the State really needs to be seen to be leading from the front. We need to get maximum benefit out of these sites in the short term, to create us a bit of breathing space to get the proper schemes in place, and to mobilise the efforts of farmers on the ground.