Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

This evening we are discussing how the Government can address fuel poverty in this country. This discussion and this session of Dáil Éireann takes place against a backdrop of severe national economic and financial difficulties. The Republic of Ireland and its citizens are currently attempting to come to terms with the first recession that has visited us in a quarter of a century. For the next four years, the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, will borrow €10 billion just to keep the country afloat. The Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, will have doubled the national debt by the end of his term.

The seriousness of these difficulties in the financial area should inform everything that is done and said in Dáil Éireann in the coming months. In the coming political cycle we must redouble our efforts to ensure public money is not wasted and that we use the national resources available to us efficiently and sensibly. It is from that perspective that I contribute to this discussion this evening.

We cannot do this in isolation. There must be an interdepartmental and cross-Cabinet effort in respect of fuel poverty. This year, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government stipulated that 500 families in Inishowen, County Donegal will not be allowed to harvest turf from the 3,000 acres of bogland where they and their ancestors have harvested turf for centuries. Officials from the Department travelled to Donegal recently and, without consulting with any of those 500 families, designated 3,000 acres of bogland in Magheradrumman, Donegal as a special area of conservation.

Fine Gael is proposing to develop a strategy to tackle the looming crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of families in the grip of fuel poverty. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, by ordering the termination of traditional fuel harvesting at Magheradrumman, has contributed to that looming crisis and will put people in the grip of fuel poverty next year.

The Irish special area of conservation is a product of the 1997 Wildlife Act and the 2000 Wildlife (Amendment) Act, which were brought before this House on foot of the European Union habitats directive of 1992. Those Acts are based on a flawed Irish interpretation of the EU habitats directive. In 1997 and again in 2000, the relevant Ministers assigned areas as SACs on exclusively scientific grounds. That exclusively scientific foundation is deeply flawed. The EU habitats directive declares that its central aim is to promote the maintenance of biodiversity, taking account of social, economic, cultural and regional requirements. It commits itself to a general objective of sustainable development and acknowledges that to this end, the maintenance of such biodiversity may, in certain cases, require the maintenance or encouragement of human activities. The 1997 regulations and the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000 do not take account of economic, social, regional or cultural requirements. I am examining this issue from such perspectives this evening in the context of the looming fuel poverty crisis. The designation of the area of County Donegal I mentioned as a special area of conservation is an aberration. It is based on an unsound interpretation of the EU's habitats directive.

The members of the Cabinet, as a team, are considering various strategies, policy proposals and new interventions as part of their search for answers. It is a great team for talking jargon. When they refer to best practice, they speak about what is happening in places like Finland and Canada. The solution I am offering would be of great assistance to the Ministers for Social and Family Affairs and Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. With their colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, they should examine what is going on. People are being prevented from cutting turf which would help them to meet their fuel needs at a low cost and, as the habitats directive makes clear, on sound sustainable grounds. I have outlined a solution. It is important that we do not forget what is happening on the ground. We know what happened over recent days, when the so-called experts, the so-called gurus and the so-called intelligentsia in the financial sector were shown to have made mistakes. There are far too many God-damn experts in this country telling people how they should live their lives. We know how to live our lives. I have suggested a solution to this problem. It worked hundreds of years ago and there is no reason it cannot continue to work into the future.

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