1) The document discusses ongoing issues with peat extraction in Ireland, particularly in raised bog habitats designated as Natura 2000 sites that are protected under EU law. 2) Aerial surveys in 2012 found that at least 23 priority habitat Natura 2000 bog sites had been cut by machines, yet the Irish authorities did not intervene. The Commission is questioned about why it did not seek injunctions to protect these sites in 2012. 3) Peat extraction also occurs outside protected areas with no planning or environmental assessment, including over 3 million tonnes annually by the semi-state company Bord na Móna. The document questions when the Commission will take action to regulate these activities.

1. Peat extraction in Ireland
(Petition No. 755/2010)
www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net 19 September 2012

2. Why we are here (again)...
Update
regarding
developments
since we first
appeared before
Petitions
Committee, in
Cloonchambers bog, Co. Roscommon
November 2011.
Priority habitat Natura 2000 site

3. Issue 1: Peat extraction in
raised bog Natura 2000 sites
Digger
Digger loads peat into Peat is spread to dry
spreading machine for burning in winter

4. Issue 2: Unassessed peat extraction by major companies
outside Natura 2000 sites
For: horticulture; three peat-fired power
stations; and as fuel for domestic heating
No planning permission, no EIA
ECJ in 1999: Nothing
“Ireland has not denied E.g. Bord na Móna has
that no project for the (Irish),
extraction of peat...has Klasmann Deilmann changed
(German),
been the subject
Pindstrup Mosebrug
since
of an impact assessment”
(C-392/96) (Danish) 1999!

5. Development 1: The Commission’s role
February 1999: Irish government announced a 10 year “derogation”
to allow peat extraction to continue “for domestic use” in Natura
2000 sites. In clear breach of the Habitats Directive.
What happened during those 10 years?
“...there has been a 99% loss of the original area of actively
growing raised bog in Ireland, and one-third of the remaining
1% has been lost in the last 10 years” (CBD, 2010)
January 2011: Commission finally begins legal proceedings.
10 June 2011: “the Commission would like to refute any insinuation
that....any political interference has resulted in it failing to carry out its
duties in relation to peat extraction and EU environmental legislation.”

6. Question 1: Commission, guardian of the Treaties?
Former Minister Éamon Ó Cuív, 6 March 2012: “It is
absolutely true to say we never received a ten year
derogation from the authorities in Brussels because
they were never going to agree to one. What we did
— what Governments need to do in such instances —
was we travelled to Brussels to tell the officials we
would offer a ten year derogation to domestic bog
cutters and arrange to remove the commercial turf
cutters who accounted for a figure of 96% of the effort,
if memory serves me correctly. The European Union
stated it was not going to extend an official derogation,
but that it would not interfere in [our] providing for the
introduction of a ten year period.”
Éamon Ó Cuív
Minister from 1997 to 2001
Will politics interfere (again) in 2013 when Ireland
holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU (January
to June, coinciding with the turf cutting season)?

7. Development 2: Aerial
survey report in May 2012
In total, at least 23 (of 53)
priority habitat raised bog
Natura 2000 sites have been cut
by machines this year.
29 May 2012: Monivea bog, Co. Galway .
Irish authorities “monitored” the cutting
but did not intervene (Irish Times, 2012).

8. Question 2: What effective steps did the Irish government or the
Commission take to protect the 23 priority habitat Natura 2000
sites cut by machines in 2012? What will happen in 2013?
Mouds bog,
Co. Kildare
Question 3: Why did the Commission not bring an
action for interim measures (injunction) in 2012?

9. (Non)Development 3: Peatlands outside Natura 2000
• No effective action to address peat
extraction outside protected areas
in Ireland. No planning
permission, no EIA.
Extraction for horticulture • In terms of scale, Bord na Móna
Extraction for 3 peat-fired (semi-state company) alone
power stations extracts 3 million tonnes per year
(EPA, 2011)!
• Question 4: When will we see
action to bring these activities into
line with EU law?

10. Is this to be the fate of
all Ireland’s raised bogs?
29 May 2012: A tiny island of bog is all that remains amidst a
sea of cutting at Moannakeeba West, an undesignated bog
near Lough Derg, Co. Galway.

11. References
EPA (2011) BOGLAND: Sustainable Ó Cuív (2012) Statement to the Dáil, 6 March 2012.
management of peatlands in Ireland. http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/03/06/00025.asp
www.epa.ie
CBD (2010) Ireland: 4th national report to the CBD.
http://www.cbd.int/doc/world/ie/ie-nr-04-en.pdf
Irish Times (2012) Turf-cutters defying ban warned of
prosecutions.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/
0601/1224317058294.html