TURF-CUTTERS who oppose the EU ban on harvesting raised bogs have been urged to attend a “mass pre-election rally” in the midlands tomorrow.
The Irish Turfcutters and Contractors Association believes that up to 1,000 people could attend the meeting in Athlone, Co Westmeath, which aims to highlight the cutting issue during the general election campaign.
Association spokesman and Roscommon mayor and councillor Luke “Ming” Flanagan (Ind) said people had a right to retain the right to cut turf for domestic use and “politicians should know that we will be cutting turf again this year”.
In May last year, the then minister for the environment John Gormley said a 10-year derogation from an EU ban on non-commercial turf-cutting in special areas of conservation (SACs) had ended.
Thirty-two raised bogs – where flora and vegetation continue to grow – would be affected, with a further 24 this year and a further 24 next year, he said. Some 75 heritage areas would be protected in 2013.
Mr Gormley said it involved less than 5 per cent of the State’s 1,500 bogs, adding that cutting on blanket bog SACs, mainly in the west, would continue.
The Department of the Environment estimates that 2,500 people cut turf for domestic use, of which about 750 worked the 32 raised bogs.
Mr Flanagan said at least 6,000 people could be affected in the 32 raised bog complexes mainly in Roscommon, east Galway, the Cavan-Meath border and parts of Mayo and Offaly, including Clara bog in Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s constituency.
“We need everyone in Ireland who cares about this issue to turn up in big numbers,” he said in an appeal to supporters.
“Bring your wife, your husband, your sister, your brother, your uncle, your aunt, your grandmother, your granddad, your niece, your nephew, your grandson, your granddaughter, your neighbours and your friends.”
The rally takes place in Athlone’s Hodson Bay Hotel tomorrow at 3pm.