Taoiseach - turf.

Turf, is it?

Is it fair to say that the last Government made a grave error in banning farmers from cutting turf in certain bogs? I am referring to the priority legislation, the wildlife (amendment) Bill. Is it factual to say the last Government made a grave error in stopping farmers from cutting turf on certain bogs?

A second issue is that long-serving and dedicated staff of the Central Remedial Clinic are in the Mercer IPT pension scheme and were horrified recently to be told that their pensions were being suspended. They were not consulted on any possible rescue package. They are public servants, identical to the other 250 staff entitled to a public service pension. It is an awful position for those people. The Minister for Social Protection is reviewing legislation on pensions so I would be grateful for an answer on those two very important issues.

Will the Taoiseach speak very briefly on those two matters?

I will raise that with-----

Turf and pensions.

Turf and pensions.

The two go hand in hand. I will raise that with the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar, and will ask him to reply to Deputy Healy-Rae. In respect of the first issue the Deputy raised, clearly the appropriate time to have a deeper analysis of what the European directive actually meant would have been when it was being drafted in the first instance, many years ago now. As Deputy Healy-Rae is aware, when directives are signed off, they are binding. The situation then arose whereby particular bogs were deemed to be exceptionally sensitive under that directive and therefore were outside the remit of turf cutting. Perhaps if the issue had been looked at in a different way in the very beginning, it might not have been-----

To decode that, was it a mistake or not?