Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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Question 136: To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will provide a summary of the number of letters and written communications sent by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, formally Dúchas, informing turf bank owners and turbary rights holders that their bogs had been given special area of conservation candidate status between the years 1997 and 1999; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31305/12]

Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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Question 137: To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if his Department has at present a team working on discovery of title of turf bank ownership; and if this is the case the reason such work was not carried out in the years 1997 to 2004 when his Department and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, formally Dúchas, were under obligation to inform the owners of turf banks and the owners of turbary rights of the special area of conservation candidate status of their bogs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31306/12]

Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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Question 138: To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will provide a summary of the number of letters and written communications sent by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, formally Dúchas, informing turf bank owners and turbary rights holders that their bogs had been given special area of conservation candidate status between the years 2002 and 2004; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31307/12]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 136 to 138, inclusive, together.

In 1997, before the commencement of the designation process for Ireland's network of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), including its raised bog sites, my Department as then configured undertook an information campaign which involved issuing letters to some 230,000 rural households advising people in general terms of the forthcoming designation programme and where they could obtain further information of the proposed designations.

Subsequently, the Department issued some 1,457 letters and site specific information packs to individuals identified as being potentially affected by the proposed designations of those raised bog SACs nominated between 1997 and 1999, and a further 3,534 letters and site-packs to persons potentially affected by the proposed designations in 2002 of the remaining raised bog sites. I am advised that these letters included maps of the sites, as well as details of restrictions to activities therein, compensation provisions and the manner in which an objection might be made to the proposed designation.

The Department has sourced its land-ownership information from a number of sources, including the Property Registration Authority, the Land Commission, the Land Parcel Identification System used by the Department of Agriculture, and the electoral register. It should be noted that the development of the Land Direct system by the Property Registration Authority in recent years has allowed much more comprehensive land-owner identification. This has improved the Department's ability to reach as many interested parties as possible. While I understand that every reasonable step was taken over the years to identify landowners and notify them directly, the Deputy will appreciate that it is not possible to guarantee that all such persons can be identified. It is commonplace, particularly in bogs, that individuals' interests are not registered at all, or not in their own names. Turbary rights, in particular, are not always up to date or accurately reflect actual land use activity.

I am advised that, to cater for this contingency, copies of maps of the proposed raised bog SACs and copies of the Government Notices relating to those sites were displayed in public access points such as Garda Síochána stations, local authority offices, local offices of the Department of Social Protection, local offices of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and offices of Teagasc located within or contiguous to the sites concerned. Proposals to designate the raised bog sites as SACs were also advertised in the appropriate local newspapers and radio advertisements were also run on local stations.

A free-phone number was also operated to facilitate the dissemination of information to those who had been alerted through these publicity measures.

In total, some 610 individual objections were received in my Department against the inclusion of land within raised bog SAC sites.

In 2011 my Department issued letters to some 6,700 landowners and users advising them of the cessation of turf cutting on the 53 raised bog sites and of the availability of a range of compensatory measures available. Some 4,000 of these had also been written to in 2010 advising them of the cessation of cutting on 31 raised bog SACs.

My Department is currently focused on making initial payments to turf cutters under the Cessation of Turf Cutting Compensation Scheme and organising for the delivery of turf to their homes. In this regard, my officials are continuing to work closely with turf cutters, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, as successor of the Land Commission, Bord na Móna and the Property Registration Authority to improve the Department's data sets and to assist people in providing the necessary proof of legal interest with their applications under the scheme.