I outlined my response to the committee's report in a press statement which I released on 10 January 1992.
Some of the recommendations contained in the report have a direct bearing on the operations of Bord na Móna. I have not accepted the report's recommendation that the future uses of Bord na Móna cutaway bog should be subject to an independent planning process. It is my belief and that of the Government that Bord na Móna should continue the development of the bogs they own on commercial criteria and that they should seek to dispose of cutaway in accordance with the company's financial interests and market requirements.
There is a fundamental principle set out in the report that the disposal and allocation of cutaway should be determined by market forces. I am fully in agreement with this concept. As proposed in the report. I am making arrangements with Bord na Móna to ensure that a proportion of cutaway suitable for conversion to grassland will be disposed of in small lots to enable small full-time farmers, adjacent to the cutaway, to increase their holdings.
The report also recommends that the arrangement whereby cutaway identified as being suitable for conversion for afforestation is transferred to Coillte Teoranta should be discontinued. I have accepted this recommendation and, in future, such lands will be placed for sale on the open market. I would be satisfied that Coillte Teoranta will succeed in acquiring significant parts of such land for their purposes.
The report makes a large number of recommendations in relation to the development of the amenity and environmental potential of the cutaway and to the establishment of "farm villages". These are not areas in which I have any function, as Minister for Energy, but I would like to see the appropriate authorities and private interests collaborating to exploit the potential of the cutaway bogs for those purposes.