Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if changes in turf cutting in the designated areas of County Galway will be made next year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41826/12]

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the legal position of his Department regarding cutting domestic turf on National Heritage Areas; if these sites are entirely under the jurisdiction of his Department; the role the EU has in relation to the NHAs in the context of said activity and where relocation to an National Heritage Areas from an Special Area of Conservation bog which is closed would be permitted. [42074/12]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 324 and 338 together.

In May 2010, the then Government decided that turf-cutting should come to an end on all raised bog Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs) at the end of 2013. Subsequently, the Programme for Government undertook to review the situation with regard to NHAs and the future of turf-cutting on such sites will be considered as part of that review.

It is intended that the review will be completed prior to the commencement of the 2014 turf-cutting season. The outcomes of the review and the proposed approach to the future of turf-cutting within these sites will be discussed as part of the Government’s ongoing dialogue with the European Commission regarding compliance with EU law in this area. For example, while NHAs are designated under national law, they are recognised as areas of environmental sensitivity for the purposes of peat extraction within the terms of the EU Environmental Impact Assessment Directive.

The outcome of the review of NHAs may also be relevant in relation to the possibility of relocating turf-cutters from raised bog Special Areas of Conservation (SACs).

In relation to SAC raised bogs, my Department is in the process of developing a National Raised Bog SAC Management Plan and has recently published a document outlining the proposed approach to the development of the plan on my Department’s website at .

There will be no changes to policy in relation to cutting on SAC raised bogs pending the conclusion of the SAC Management Plan, including necessary involvement of the European Commission.

I also intend to elaborate an overarching policy on peatlands in a proposed National Peatlands Strategy, which my Department will be preparing in consultation with the Peatlands Council.