Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

An impression is being given by the Minister to the media that the vast majority of turf cutters on the so-called special areas of conservation have given up cutting turf and signed up to his plan. The reality is that but 1,209 legal agreements out of over 9,000 have been returned by those with turbary rights and landowners in the so-called special areas of conservation.

That is not the vast majority. It is approximately 15% and the other 85% are being abandoned, not by me but by the State.

I was interested to hear an earlier reply the Minister gave on the bogs issue. He appears to think that the de-designation of some of the NHAs has not left grasslands that farmers need to use in parts that were not de-designated. The Minister said that none of them had been put in those areas. Since he said that I have received two messages. One is from a landowner in Cashel bog in Leitrim, whose house and land are in this designated area. The other is from somebody in Carricknaughton, who has acres of grassland within the area the Minister does not intend to de-designate. What the Minister said earlier is incorrect. He has now created a situation where people will have to ask permission to put cattle on their land. It appears they will also have to ask permission to open the front door of their house, because the Minister has left houses within these designations. Earlier he smiled and suggested this was not the case, but it is. I can bring the Minister to meet the people concerned.

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