Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Question 44: To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if an environmental impact assessment has been carried out on raised bogs designated as special areas of conservation and natural heritage areas; the way this compares with the assessments of the impacts of turf cutting on designated raised bogs project, also known as the Fernandez report, which estimates that less than 1% of raised bogs were lost in the past ten years due to turf cutting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16487/11]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Environmental Impact Assessments are required where particular projects, within the meaning of the EU EIA Directives, are proposed to be carried out. The assessments normally form part of relevant consent procedures within Member States. Peat extraction is one category of project which falls within the remit of the Directives. The criteria under which peat extraction projects would require an Environmental Impact Assessment in Ireland are set out in the Planning and Development Regulations under the Planning and Development Acts 2000 – 2010 and under Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations made under the European Communities Acts.

My Department is not aware that consent has been sought under these Regulations, or Environmental Impact Assessment carried out, for any peat extraction project on a designated bog in recent years.

The Assessment of Impacts of Turf Cutting on Designated Raised Bogs Report (Fernandez Report), (2006) was a study carried out to review the impact on all designated bogs in Ireland of turf cutting, and to develop appropriate responses to these impacts. The Fernandez Report showed that domestic turf cutting was taking place on 117 of the 139 designated bogs. It also found that increased mechanisation of turf cutting has generally been associated with an intensification of drainage of the cut over and high bog.

A separate study completed by Fernandez in 2005 assessed the conservation status of almost 50% of the designated raised bog sites in Ireland. The study concluded that turf cutting activities and raised bog conservation were incompatible. It found that there had been an almost 37% decrease in the extent of the priority habitat type "active raised bog" on these bogs in a 10 year period. In the same period, approximately 1% of the high bog area had been cut away. The major cause of the decrease in the extent of these internationally important habitats, that this country is obliged by Irish and EU legislation to protect, was identified in the Fernandez report as domestic turf cutting and drainage works.