Mr. Joe Hamill:

The Deputy will probably be aware that during 1997 and 2000 Ireland designated a range of raised bogs as special areas of conversation for the purposes of the habitats directive. Some 53 raised bogs were designated over that period. In January 2011, the European Commission issued a letter of formal notice to the effect that in its view Ireland had failed to meet its obligations under EU law to protect these SACs and raised bog NHAs in terms of the regulation of turf cutting. The notice was fairly strongly worded. This was followed up with a reasoned opinion from the Advocate General, essentially threatening to take interim measures against Ireland if we did not act quickly on the matter. That reasoned opinion was issued in June 2011, at which time it seemed there was a real danger that Ireland would be injuncted, brought before the European Court of Justice, and subjected to fines and, possibly, daily fines.

The Government at the time took the view that strong action was needed. Part of this action was to put in place a compensation scheme for people who were cutting turf on these raised bogs-special areas of conversation. A turf cutting compensation scheme, essentially offering compensation over 15 years, was put in place. The payments per annum are €1,500 subject to a consumer price index review each year. Up to end 2014, we had made approximately 6,400 payments under that scheme, some of which were multiple payments in respect of years 1, 2 and 3. Overall, approximately 2,000 cutters have signed up to the scheme. An incentive payment of €500 was also provided to those people who signed a legal agreement with the Minister. At end 2014, 1,882 legal agreements had been issued, of which 1,408 have since been returned. We have paid the incentive payment to 1,310 people. This means approximately 1,300 of the approximately 1,900 legal agreements issued have been fully executed.

In 2014, the scheme was extended from SACs to natural heritage area, NHA, raised bogs. By end 2014, we had received 164 applications under the NHA designation, of which 94 have been accepted and paid. Since the scheme was rolled out in mid-2011 we have spent approximately €11.6 million on it.