Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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361. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when a person (details supplied) who has provided all the requested documents to her Department will receive payment for the NPWS scheme and cessation of turf cutting; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39250/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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An application for compensation under the cessation of turf cutting compensation scheme has been received by my Department from the individual referred to in the Deputy’s Question.

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

- The applicant must have had a legal interest (ownership or a turbary right) in one of the 36 raised bog natural heritage areas on 25 May 2010 and must have had the right to cut and remove turf from the property on that date;

- The applicant must have been cutting turf on the land in question during the five year period up to 14 January 2014;

- The turf resource on the site has not been exhausted; and

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

An assessment of the bog plot in question to confirm whether turf was cut on the site during the relevant five year period is scheduled to be carried out by my Department.  Once this assessment has been completed, my Department will be in a position to examine the application further.