The Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht has issued a fresh warning that turf-cutters who continue to defy EU habitats designations will face prosecutions and “remediation costs” if they continue to cut turf illegally at designated bogs across the country.
The warning follows a showdown between National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers, gardaí and up to 150 people who turned up to support turf-cutters at a contentious bog in Co Galway last weekend.
Supporters from Roscommon and Offaly, turned up to “protect” those cutting while they were being monitored by gardaí and parks and wildlife service rangers at a designated peatland site
A spokesman for the Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht said that service staff were “continuing to gather evidence relating to unauthorised cutting” and warned of prosecutions in due course.