Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)

I will share my time with Deputy Paul McGrath. This is an extremely important issue which was raised at a meeting we both held with the IFA in Mullingar two or three weeks ago. It has provoked strong responses from approximately 75 people with turbary rights in the geographical area covered by Carn Park and Crosswood Bogs in south Westmeath near Athlone and Mount Temple.

The proposal is for special areas of conservation in accordance with the 1997 habitats regulations. People who make these decisions seem to have very little understanding of their impact on turbary owners in such areas, who require bogland to harvest turf as a source of fuel for domestic use. While these areas might have been proposed as SAC areas in December 2002, the people impacted on heard and saw nothing more until physical action was taken by officials of the Department on the turf bank.

Surely the Department uses the agreement between the Government and farming organisations, copies of which both Deputy Paul McGrath and I have, on the review of the implementation of the habitats regulations 1997, whereby it should notify affected persons in writing, explaining in clear language the scientific reasons for the designation, and hold follow-up discussions with them. That is the least to be expected when turbary land, which people are using effectively, is to be confiscated and sterilised.

Appendix C deals with the compensation for turf-cutting under the agreement and states that, in the case of raised bogs and where it is necessary to prohibit turf cutting in blanket bogs, save in exceptional circumstances, people will be allowed to continue domestic cutting on their plots for up to ten years. After the ten-year period the Department would review whether there were particular circumstances under which domestic turf cutting could continue on raised bogs without damaging them. Based upon a simple interpretation of this agreement, Deputy Paul McGrath and I concluded that the 75 turbary owners based in Carn Park and Crosswood Bog should have until 2015 to continue utilising their bog areas for the purpose of harvesting turf for domestic consumption.

It was the suddenness and the pre-emptory nature of the Minister's action that aroused the ire of the turbary owners in the area. Why not have some consultation with the groups so severely impacted by these proposals? Why could these people not be offered alternative areas in close proximity to allow them to harvest their turbary requirements? Why has the agreement between the Government and the farming organisations, particularly the IFA, which included two meetings with the former Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, been totally disregarded in this important process? I ask the Minister to revisit the decision and enter discussions in consultation with the affected people in this geographic area. It is not too late to do so.

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