Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I thank Deputy Whitmore. The discussion on the nature restoration law is ongoing. There is a distance to go yet. The Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and I will be in Luxembourg next week.

Separately - and I have said this publicly as well - a lot of restoration work is already under way in this country. There are projects like the wild Atlantic nature project up in the north west and the LIFE on Machair project. There is lots of really good work going on with landowners already. I have been on record as saying that I think it is important that we embark on our own plan, and we can do that. There is an opportunity that exists for landowners, and a lot of the schemes we have are very popular. They love being involved in them. The wild Atlantic nature project paid out something like €2.4 million last month to landowners, with average payments of over €3,000. That is very welcome, and we want to see that type of approach to it. We have the capacity to do it. The bolstering of the NPWS has been really important. We need to continue on that trajectory. It is challenging, because right across every sector of public service and the private sector, it is challenging in terms of recruitment and that, but we are moving a distance on restoration. We should continue that.

I will not comment specifically on the project, but I am familiar with them, and our staff in the Wicklow Mountains National Park are doing fantastic work in restoration, and some in collaboration with the private sector, such as Intel. We have been working with Coillte to look particularly at land where there is Sitka spruce planted on peatland, where they are stranded assets - they are not good lumber value with regard to wood quality - and about rehabilitating those lands. There are projects already under way up in Wild Nephin National Park, and they have been very successful. It is very labour-intensive, and very costly to do it, but it is worthwhile. We know that our blue dot catchments in particular are few and far between, and we need more of them.

We think that regardless of what happens at European level, we should look towards the partnership approach we have with Bord na Móna on peatland restoration. We have been very successful in that regard to date, and with Coillte, other state agencies and private landowners, working towards significant restoration targets around the country.