Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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306. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the cost of bog compensation in each of the years 2012 to 2016 and to date in 2017, by county, in tabular form. [29454/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The cessation of turf cutting compensation scheme was established in 2011 to compensate active turf cutters for their loss arising from the cessation of turf cutting on raised bog special areas of conservation. This scheme is comprised of a payment of €1,500 per annum, index-linked, for 15 years, or relocation, where feasible, to a non-designated bog, together with a once-off incentive payment of €500. In 2014, the scheme was extended to raised bog natural heritage areas. Details of the expenditure on compensation under the Cessation of Turf Cutting Compensation Scheme since its inception are set out in the following table, on a county by county basis. Some raised bog protected sites straddle two or more counties and this is reflected in the table.

This expenditure, totalling €23.051 million, is comprised of amounts paid in respect of annual payments, lump sum relocation payments, turf deliveries, once-off incentive payments and direct relocation costs. The figures do not include the centralised expenditure associated with relocation to non-designated bogs such as site assessment costs, infrastructure costs and costs associated with planning permission requirements for relocation sites.