Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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274. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if persons who own turbary rights or fee simple in bogs that are subject to a ban on cutting under present conservation legislation are entitled automatically to compensation; if not, the categories of persons entitled to compensation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12428/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Under the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011 and the Wildlife Acts, compensation may be payable where a person has been refused consent by me, as Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, for a prescribed activity within a designated site that he or she had been undertaking in the five year period prior to the refusal.

However, compensation schemes have generally been put in place, where required, without the need to undergo a formal process under the relevant legislation. Such schemes include a comprehensive compensation scheme for those affected by the cessation of turf cutting on raised bog habitat.

The qualifying criteria for this cessation of turf cutting compensation scheme are that:

-The claimant must have a legal interest in one of the raised bog special areas of conservation or natural heritage areas – ownership or turbary right;

-The claimant must have been the owner or entitled to exercise turbary rights on the land in question on 25 May 2010;

-The turbary on the site must not be exhausted;

-The claimant must have been cutting turf on the land in question during the relevant five year period; and

-No turf cutting or associated activity is ongoing on the property.

The closing date for the receipt of applications under the scheme generally has passed for raised bog special areas of conservation. However, my Department will continue to accept late applications under the scheme for the time being.