Mr. Brian Lucas:

To take up from the points made, Deputy Fitzmaurice talked about the need to bring landowners and communities with us. This is something that the Government has set out in A Programme for a Partnership Government. There is recognition that turf cutters have a right to cut turf, which is balanced on the conservation obligations on the State. In my presentation, when I talked about the national raised bog special areas of conservation management plan, I stated it sets out how the raised bog special areas of conservation are to be managed, conserved and restored and, just as importantly, how the needs of turf cutters are to be addressed. In terms of what the Department has tried to do, we have an annual payment scheme. Under that scheme for cessation of turf cutting on the raised bogs, we have made over 18,000 payments amounting to €27 million.

In my job, over the years I have met turf cutter representatives and I have met turf cutters quite a number of times. Quite a few turf cutters say that they are getting their compensation and they are reasonably happy with that. I should not say "compensation". They are getting their payment and they are reasonably happy with that. I have to say I meet turf cutters who say that they just want to cut somewhere and that turf cutting has been in their family for generations and they would like to continue that tradition. It is not only for a source of fuel, although that is an important consideration. I meet people who say that it is part of their culture and heritage and part of their family tradition. In the national plan, we try to recognise that. What the Government stated in A Programme for a Partnership Government is that we will try to accommodate people in non-designated bogs where we can. We got planning permission last year to develop two non-designated bogs for turf cutting and we hope to develop those sites this year. We have similar sites in the process.

What we have said as well - we set down this in the national plan, which is a published document available from the Department's website - is we see there being annual payments and accommodation in a non-designated bog. If that does not work for some reason, because it can be quite difficult to get a non-designated bog for turf cutting, we will try to use the habitats directive. There is an article in the directive that allows for cutting on an SAC so long as one does not damage the integrity of the site. That is an important point to make. One cannot damage or degrade a raised bog. We set out in that national plan the sites that we are looking for to see would that work as an alternative. Therefore, it is payments, accommodation in a non-designated bog or the use of Article 6.3 of the habitats directive.

Conservation came up in some of the questions about the targets. For the raised bog network for the SACs and the NHAs, the target is to get to 3,600 ha of active raised bog.

Deputy Fitzmaurice also brought up the issue of planning permission and fencing in sites. It is an issue that I have had landowners raise with me over the years. Generally, fencing would be exempt from planning permission. The issue is, as I referred earlier, activities requiring consent. In a designated site, it could be an activity requiring consent of the Minister or of another public authority. Were somebody to come to the Minister looking for consent, we would have to carry out an appropriate assessment screening. If the result of the screening was that the proposal to develop or maintain the fence did not require a full appropriate assessment, the Minister then would be in a position to give consent. If a full appropriate assessment is required, it brings that activity into the planning system and that is where planning permission may be required. A landowner once came to me stating he had been told by a local authority that he needed planning permission to put up a fence. When I spoke to the local authority about the case, it stated it had engaged and had offered an invitation to engage in pre-planning consultation to see whether the activity might have screened out. Therefore, it does not necessarily mean one would need planning permission to put up a fence in a designated site. It would require screening and the result of that screening-----