Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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280. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if there is any restriction on the exercise of the turbary right of turf cutting on lands included in Lough Nillan Bog (Carrickatlieve) SAC and Lough Nillan Bog SPA, County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23743/24]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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Schedule 4 of Statutory Instrument 386/22, which provides for the designation of the site at Lough Nillan Bog (Carrickatlieve) as a Special Area of Conservation, states that all activities relating to turf cutting and/or peat extraction – with the exception of continued domestic turf cutting from existing turf banks – on Lough Nillan Bog (Carrickatlieve) SAC (000165) require the permission of the Minister before they can be carried out.

Where such an application for the consent of the Minister has been made, I may make a decision informed by the level of impact to habitats and/or species that will occur as a result of the activity taking place.

The permission of the Minister to carry out these activities is similarly required on those lands within the footprint of Lough Nillan Bog SPA (004110) that overlap with Lough Nillan Bog (Carrickatlieve) SAC (000165).

Under the Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC), any activity which is likely to have significant effects on a European Site (a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) or a Special Protected Area (SPA), or candidate area, designated under the Habitats Directive) requires an Appropriate Assessment and therefore may require planning consent.

Landowners or occupiers should contact the local National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department before undertaking any of the works listed at Schedule 4 of S.I. No. 386 of 2022.