Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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38. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide an update with regard to the restrictions on turf cutting in certain counties; the number of turf cutters by county who have been compensated; the average compensation package awarded; the total spend on compensation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40148/14]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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3,017 applications for compensation under the cessation of turf cutting compensation scheme for raised bog special areas of conservation (SACs) have been received and acknowledged by my Department. 6,116 payments and 610 deliveries of turf have been made in respect of the applications received. In addition, 1,197 once-off incentive payments of €500 have been made to applicants who have signed and returned legal agreements under the scheme to my Department.The total expenditure amounts to over €10.9 million. This expenditure is comprised of amounts paid in respect of annual payments, turf deliveries and once-off incentive payments.

Details of the expenditure on annual payments and once-off incentive payments under the scheme to date, grouped by county, are set out in the following Table 1 SACs. A number of raised bog special areas of conservation straddle more than one county and it is not possible to give a single figure per county where this arises.

The cessation of turf cutting compensation scheme has been extended to land owners and turbary right holders affected by the restrictions on turf cutting in raised bog natural heritage areas (NHAs). 147 applications have been received and 68 payments have been made at a cost of over €103,000 to applicants from these sites. Details of the expenditure under the scheme to date for these sites, grouped by county, are set out in the following Table 2 NHAs.

My Department estimates that in the region of 2,200 individual applicants have received payments under the cessation of turf cutting compensation scheme, with the average amount paid under the scheme to each individual in the region of €5,000.

TABLE 1 SACs