Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

383. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the role she has regarding the maintenance of ecosystem functions, including carbon sequestration and surface water management as well as the protection of biodiversity, in peatlands and cutover peatlands which are not subject to a nature conservation designation. [32132/16]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The maintenance of ecosystem functions and services, both within and outside designated areas, is dependent on a number of Government Departments and agencies, as well as national and local planning authorities. No single Department or agency has all of the skills or the resources necessary to achieve such maintenance across the national territory, including the marine.

All public authorities in Ireland have a responsibility to carry out their functions in compliance with the EU Nature Directives as they apply to the wider countryside, as well as in designated areas. My own Department has a substantial role in regard to the protection of lands and waters designated under those Directives and under domestic law. It also has a further substantial role in the protection of biodiversity generally, through the implementation and enforcement of the Wildlife Acts and the management of National Parks and Nature Reserves around the country.

With regard to peatlands, my Department's focus is on the designated areas, both Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Natural Heritage Areas. The draft national Raised Bog SAC Management Plan, approved by Government and published by my Department in 2014, aims to restore bogs to enable them to accumulate peat again, to sequester carbon and to contribute to surface water management through the storage and slow release of rainwater.

My Department also has in place a project for the restoration of 12 raised bog SACs with support from the EU LIFE fund and, in the coming years, such work is expected to be expanded onto more of the 53 raised bog SACs. Bord na Móna, Coillte and community groups such as that at Abbeyleix are also carrying out restoration projects on boglands. While my Department has advisory and scientific monitoring roles in regard to peatlands outside the Natura network, it is not in a position to carry out direct management in such cases.