Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

It always took two, three or more to do it.

I am sorry I must return to this issue due to the Government decision taken last week, which appears to steamroll thousands of bog owners off their properties from this week onwards. It has been carried out in a terribly ham-fisted way. I have put on the record before and I will do so again tonight that I happen to be one of those bog owners and bog harvesters, and unashamedly so I can assure the House.

The bog owners were very shabbily treated because nobody received an individual letter to explain the reason for the confiscation of their bogs, and that is what this is. It was announced in a news bulletin after the Government made its decision. An interdepartmental committee had been sitting on this since last August but we never heard what it came up with as its findings were never published. It met all the stakeholders and as far as we are concerned it was camouflage to allow the Minister enough time to do what he did last week.

People involved in this are the most law-abiding individuals one would meet on a day's walk. There are shades of the rod licence dispute about this and I want to state this in the House so nobody is under any illusions. People who have inherited bogs through generations and cut their domestic supply of turf from their bogs are substituting for very expensive imported oil. It will be extraordinarily difficult for them to walk off the bog.

The Taoiseach finally stated to me today that €1 million was made available-----

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