State ownership of peatlands advised

BORD NA MÓNA:BORD NA Móna and the peat extraction rights to its bogs should be sold, but not ownership of the peatlands themselves, the McCarthy report has found.

The company founded in 1935 to exploit the country’s peat resources became public in 1999, though it remains 95 per cent owned by the Minister for Finance.

With businesses in fuel distribution, energy, water treatment, horticulture and waste collection, the company employs more than 2,000 people. Its operating profits over the past four years have been stable at about € 23 million.

The report states that Bord na Móna’s core profitability comes from its fuel and energy operations, both of which face challenges with a clampdown on carbon emissions.

While a key element of the company’s strategy is the development of wind energy, primarily located at a site in Mayo, the McCarthy report recommends that the Government should dispose of the company.

Arguing against the sale of the company’s individual businesses in a piecemeal way, the authors of the report say that the sale of the company as a single entity would make it more valuable.

The report recommends that the State retains ownership of the company’s peatlands, licensing out the peat extraction rights.

Should Coillte’s forest estates be leased on a long-term basis as recommended elsewhere in the report, its authors recommend that the lands of both Coillte and Bord na Móna be managed by a single State agency that would receive commercial income from licence revenues.