Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht

Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals

2:10 pm

Photo of Luke FlanaganLuke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Nugent for his explanation. What is his understanding of the impact of the initial directive on turf cutting and the way it is at present and, in practical terms, what will this mean for turf cutters afterwards? The reason I ask this is that Mr. Nugent talked about projects and private people doing X, Y and Z. In many cases that would be people like my father. The project he would be undertaking would be to try and keep his house warm. When he decides in future to engage in that project of keeping his house warm, how much will it end up costing him? Will it cost him so much that it will no longer be practical for him to do it? What will be the impact?

For years I and an organisation called the Turf Cutters and Contractors Association have warned that in terms of what was coming down the line from Europe, after initially designating special areas of conservation and criminalising people for cutting turf, we would see a series of wetlands directives, including this directive, put into Irish law which would end the tradition and culture of cutting turf in this country forever at a practical level, unless one was so rich that one did it for the craic.

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