Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A key element of the National Raised Bog Special Areas of Conservation Management Plan 2017-2022, approved by the Government and published by my Department in December 2017, is to maintain active raised bog habitat and restore degraded raised bog habitat to active raised bog habitat. The national restoration programme for Ireland's raised bog special areas of conservation and natural heritage areas is contained within this plan. It was intended to restore all designated raised bogs within three cycles, with the first cycle operating for the duration of the management plan.

This programme can now be accelerated due to the announcement in budget 2020 of €5 million for peatlands restoration. This funding will allow for restoration measures to be undertaken on approximately 1,800 ha in 2020 on up to nine raised bog designated sites across seven counties and the installation of an eddy covariance flux tower on a representative bog to directly observe the exchanges of gas, energy, and momentum between the ecosystem and the atmosphere. The flux tower will directly measure the carbon, water, and heat flows between plant communities and the atmosphere.

Some 23 other raised bog designated sites have been identified for restoration works over the next number of years under the programme. Restoration plans for each of the 53 raised bog special areas of conservation have been drafted to be developed further in partnership with stakeholders including landowners and local communities. Site-specific restorations plans for the raised bog natural heritage areas are currently being developed by the Department using the most up-to-date scientific methodologies available and best practice models gained from other restoration projects.

I was in the midlands on 11 November, as was said earlier. We hope there will be 100 jobs created there. This has gone out to tender. There will be jobs like tree felling and scrub clearance, as well as for machine operators, engineers, hydrologists, ecologists and dam installers. Some of these are non-technical jobs for people who are not trained in those areas.

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