THE GOVERNMENT has been told by the European Commission that it could face penalties of tens of millions of euro plus fines of more than €20,000 per day unless it takes steps to end turf-cutting in protected peatland habitats.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment confirmed yesterday that the commission said it was planning to expedite legal proceedings against Ireland if turf-cutting did not cease on 31 raised bogs protected by the EU habitats directive.
The revelation followed an announcement by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan and Minister for Heritage Jimmy Deenihan of a compensation package for turf-cutters with turbary rights on sites designated as special areas of conservation (SACs).
Under the scheme, the turf-cutters would receive payments of €1,000 per year for a maximum of 15 years. Alternatively, where feasible, qualifying turf-cutters “will be facilitated in relocating to alternative, non-designated sites to continue cutting turf”.
The scheme “will apply immediately to turf-cutters on 31 raised bog SACs” where a cessation of turf-cutting was confirmed by the previous government in May 2010. Similar measures will apply for a further 24 raised-bog SACs from the end of this year.
The announcement follows last week’s decision by the Government to establish an independent peatlands council to deal with the future management of peatlands, including the protection of bogs designated as SACs and natural heritage areas (NHAs).
In their programme for government last month the Coalition said it would “allow an exemption for domestic turf-cutting on 75 NHA sites, subject to the introduction of an agreed national code of environmental practices” as well as resolving the SACs issue.
Referring to the 31 raised-bog SACs, Mr Hogan said yesterday that landowners and turf-cutters in these sites “will be contacted directly in the coming weeks informing them of the scheme and how those who wish to be considered for relocation will be dealt with”.
Ireland’s raised bogs are regarded as the best examples of the tiny portion of such habitats left in Europe. The scientific advice available to the Government is that continued turf extraction and conservation of these sites are incompatible.
“We have legal obligations and there will be immediate consequences if we do not meet them,” Mr Hogan said, in reference to the imminent prospect of penalties. The compensation scheme aimed to “respond in a strategic way” to the requirements of the habitats directive.
Altogether there are some 3,500 landowners in the 31 SAC bogs where turf-cutting was due to cease in 2010 following the expiry in 2008 of a “derogation” for Ireland from meeting the terms of the directive. Of these it is estimated that 750 are “active turf-cutters”. If each of them was to receive €1,000 in compensation per year for 15 years, the cost to the exchequer would be €11.25 million. A similar annuity scheme for those with turbary rights in the remaining 24 raised-bog SACs would bring the overall cost to about €20 million.
TURF-CUTTERS CRITICISE GOVERNMENT PLAN: COALITION 'RENEGING' ON ELECTION PROMISES
FINE GAEL and Labour were accused last night by Independent Roscommon TD Luke “Ming” Flanagan of reneging on promises they made before the general election that people would be able to continue cutting turf, even in protected habitat areas.
Mr Flanagan, who is also public relations officer for the Turf Cutters and Contractors Association, said: “Some people will take compensation. So be it. Let them, even though it’s not the best offer in the world. All we want to be able to do is to continue cutting turf.”
Farmers complained that the compensation package to end turf-cutting on designated peat and habitat sites did not go far enough and would “not ease the anger among turf-cutters over the restrictions”.
Padraic Divilly, chairman of the IFA’s project team for special areas of conservation, said the payments “should be raised to €2,000 per annum, and for the lifetime of the bog, not 15 years as announced by the Minister”.
Gabriel Gilmartin, president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association, also called for a “fairer deal”, saying the compensation package was “not realistic . . . as it does reflect the high energy costs that we must contend with on a daily basis”.
It added that “the cessation of turf-cutting is untimely in the current economic climate”.
But Friends of the Irish Environment said the row over turf-cutting was “only the tip of a vast unregulated industry that was using loopholes in the Planning Acts to avoid planning and licensing”, with raised bogs in excess of 100 hectares “being stripped across the midlands”.
A spokesman said peat was being “trucked out for export with no planning permission or EPA licence. These operations were “silting up the rivers, damaging wildlife and water quality and destroying our most valuable national carbon store”.
