Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the question of the derogation, apparently it was never approved by Europe, but the Government of the time said there was a derogation. When I inherited this challenge, the derogation was finished in the case of 31 bogs and last year it finished for the other 22. Therefore, there are no more derogations. The derogation was provided at a national rather than at a European level, and I am surprised it was not noticed by Brussels over the ten-year period. If the problem had been addressed between 1997 and 2002, we would not be discussing it now. It should have been addressed in an incremental fashion and there should have been the kind of widespread consultation we are trying to do now with the Peatland's Council and forum. There should have been more dialogue to try to resolve the matter.

We signed up to the European habitats directive in 1992 and transposed it into Irish law in 1997. We designated 53 raised SAC bogs and told Europe we would protect these bogs and there would be no more cutting on them, but that did not happen. That is the reason Europe was going to take us to court and fine us heavily. The fine is €25,000 a day with a major upfront fine. We have avoided that up to now and hopefully we can continue to work together for a resolution and continue to avoid it and in the process we can accommodate those people who want to continue to cut turf. The derogation did not derive from Europe and was not approved it. It came from national Government.

I agree with the Deputy that NHAs are determined by Irish law, so we have more flexibility on those. In the programme for Government we committed to setting up the Peatlands Council and to looking at the NHAs with a view to putting a management plan in place. With regard to the commercial contractors, I referred to these in a response to Question No. 6, earlier, and explained how they were compensated initially. Over €4 million in compensation was provided to commercial contractors.

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