Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

It is ironic that I rise possibly for the last time on the Adjournment on a matter I have probably raised more often in this House than any other Deputy, namely, the effect of the EU habitats directive on the 32 raised bogs. I have a personal interest in the matter which I always declare in the House.

Just before last December, I and thousands of people throughout the country received a letter from the wildlife section of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government stating that as and from 1 January this year I would be prohibited from cutting a domestic supply of turf on our bogs, as we have done for generations. In that letter, the Minister stated that negotiations would take place about price and alternative local arrangements that may come to pass between the stakeholders and the Department with a view to ascertaining whether there is any middle ground. To my knowledge, nothing has happened in that regard, as nothing happened in the previous two years.

I want to put on the record that this was a daft decision - I must put it that strongly. I accept that Ireland must implement the EU habitats directive, and Fine Gael has no difficulty with that. However, the method in which this directive has been handled in recent years is outrageous. This is at a time when the cost of home heating oil is at a high and is rising by the day, and when the Departments of State have not a penny to pay to anyone and will not have for some years. How will they find compensation for people who cannot cut turf on their bogs when there is not a penny in the Exchequer? I emphasise that this concerns people's domestic rather than commercial supply of turf. The freedom to cut this turf would ensure that the cost of importing oil was reduced somewhat.

Nothing in this affair makes sense. A halt should be called at this stage. An independent chairperson should be put in charge of an overall board where all the stakeholders, including the Department, are involved. The independence of such a board is crucial. The turf cutters should be allowed to cut for this cutting season and a management plan should be drawn up for every one of the 32 complexes of bog throughout the country. If the issue was approached in this manner, I have no doubt the Department and the Government of the day, whoever that is, would find the bog cutters would be helpful and flexible in coming to an accommodation.

My grandfather got this bog from the Land Commission in the 1930s, he transferred it to my father, I got it in due course and I am in the process of transferring it to my son. I am lucky enough to have a grandson and I hope his day will come. I do not want to be the link that broke in a generational chain or that I was in some way the cause of a situation where people could not cut their own supply of turf for domestic use in the middle of rural Ireland. Irrespective of what the culture of the day was, that would not make sense. I ask the Minister of State to do what he can. This is an issue that must be dealt with in his constituency as well.

See this speech in context