Carol Nolan warns rushed 'Bored Nemona' consultation risks flooding

I just want to begin by thanking the farming organisations for coming in today and giving us their detailed presentations. I suppose coming from a county, County Offaly, which is very much the focus of all of this work at the minute, it does appear that the whole process has been rushed and pushed and that causes some concern. Certainly I've been contacted by a number of concerned farmers who feel that the consultation wasn't good from the onset with Bored Nemona. So I feel that Bored Nemona need to be more forthcoming in their communication. It needs to be a lot better. And I suppose, look, this is a very serious issue really because any risk of flooding, we have areas in Offaly, particularly West Offaly, which is badly affected by flooding as we speak. We don't want more flooding unnecessarily if this isn't done properly. So I'm just wondering, in terms of the risk of flooding to farmland and possible damage also to houses nearby and infrastructure, which will cost us more money. Why is the emphasis being put on the bogs in order to sequest carbon when grassland can also do that? And if our forestry crisis was sorted out, we're not meeting targets, climate change targets at the minute, we should be planting 8,000 hectares every year as per programme for government commitment. And that's not happening. So we need to not alone focus on the bogs, but also on those areas of forestry, but also on those areas of forestry, as I mentioned, if we can get this crisis sorted out quickly, and indeed the grassland. But I suppose, look, I'm very concerned over the issue of Turbury rights as well, Offaly being a county which depends heavily, and as you rightly say in your submission, a 38% dependency on turf. So I'm just wondering, was any agreement reached on that issue with Bored Nemona? What was the problem? What was the secret is, and if it was real? And I suppose I would have been thinking about it, at this point, and a certain area ofay and what's the impact of� the water being treated in all this? And indeed, that an agreement, a written agreement is also drawn up in respect of protecting their rights. both trying to achieve what all groups here tree groups are trying to achieve in their submissions and i have indeed made a submission myself on this issue because i am concerned about about flooding and i am concerned about um farmers rights being you know uh trodden on and people being affected so i have made a submission i was glad to see the submission date was extended but we do need more engagement from board namona and it can't be rushed and i'll end on that note thank you okay uh mr mccormick yep um thanks very much um i suppose i i deal with med carter is there first seen as it can it came up first um obviously there's the issue of of minister ryan and the fact that he hasn't engaged significantly with local landowners and affected people the people that uh deputy nolan spoke about there um equally i suppose deputy character asked the question about consultation today is look there has been a lot of discussion we're meeting with for the morning again tomorrow morning for further discussions we've had local meetings uh with affected people and put a list of questions to them and hopefully we get significant progress on those answers tomorrow um but you know going back to a point made by deputy fitz morris earlier um we have nothing in writing at this point in time and uh you know until the ink dries uh nothing has been has been secured and you know whether that is that the tough cutting rights for locals uh the deputy nolan mentioned earlier or later there as well that would obviously have to be in writing it's absolutely critical going forward but um you know i suppose we need to get commitments commitments that are are of a good code of practice uh in writing moving forward and equally i'd agree there's a huge frustration out there to deputy nolan's comment uh on some farm families and farmers that that want to put forestry put land into forestry and not in a position to do so at this point in time so there are many other ways of or a significant number of other ways of of meeting our climate obligations and targets including the management of grassland and indeed uh the plantations of forestry so it is a combined effort as we move forward but there will be more than farmers affected the rural dwellers can be significantly affected and i think just deputy nolan touched on it there again uh with houses you know on the potential there for flooding and we see that time and time again uh in in the news uh flood flood after flood in in various towns and cities but you know there's real potential for that out there in in in in the rural parts of the affected affected areas i don't know now whether my colleague uh pat o'brien wants to come in uh from a local perspective and and the the frustration that at the engagement and the lack of commitment i suppose uh within that engagement okay i just uh i'll hear now tim conan first and then i'll come back to i'll come back to pat tim is indicating again there mr conan thank thank you chairman and uh there's some excellent points being raised here and as far as consultation has been concerned so look we've had a lot of consultation but i view this is like to find we can sign off agreements here next week or week after but what is more important here is is a continuation of engagement here that's what i'm hearing coming through here like this is a major project we have farmers and their livelihoods in this area they have to be protected and we're not going to do this overnight this is an ongoing process and um it was mentioned there about the flooding what borne moana are trying to what they will or the proposal to achieve here is that they have to get uh growth on the bog you know where where the peat has been taken out now for years and what we have at the moment is the carbon is being emitted it's coming up out of the bog into the atmosphere what what they're doing here is creating a seal and creating growth that the carbon will be sequestered in and and it becomes uh an excellent carbon sink and i think look we all acknowledge where we are and i think um deputy character you make a very valid point a lot of taxpayers money is being invested here and we have to ensure when this work is completed that this this project stays in within the state and this carbon is used to to offset the carbon within our own country and and just to mention on forestry as well that's something we need to look at as well so where this carbon will be going because we are being blamed as farmers so it's very very important going forward that we take account of that carbon and obviously taxpayers money that's being spent here and deputy nolan i think um so you make very valid points about about again about the flooding and draw and particularly lands and farmlands and all i was in awfully earlier on this year or last year now we've seen the effects of flooding from the shannon and part of that actually would have been because of some of the processes in borne moana where there has been silting in the bed of the shannon shannon as well and that has um created problems in its own right so like this is what i see here is this is an ongoing engagement like borne moana as well as we all know they have ceased or will be seasoned completely the production of of peat and and and and briquettes as well and turf going forward but like they are i suppose look into the renewable energy business as well and so what we want to see here is we want to see this industry develop further the renewable energy so let it be i know wind turbines maybe not huge engagement there with farmers but we have to get more in this project we have to get more direct engagement with farmers to develop projects around increasing farmers income now this is where we have to go with this and just a quick mention uh deputy knowing you mentioned the forestry and look i don't think we're going to waste time on it here this evening but like that's another issue that um is in chaos at the moment and uh we we want to see and the minister coming out i know there we have um made a report that came out last week but like we're looking at report after report to 1c progress there as well thank you chairman