Peat extraction in Ireland(Petition No. 755/2010)

www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net 19 September 2012

Why we are here (again)...

Cloonchambers bog, Co. RoscommonPriority habitat Natura 2000 site

Update regarding developments since we first appeared before Petitions Committee, in November 2011.

Digger

Issue 1: Peat extraction in raised bog Natura 2000 sites

Digger loads peat into spreading machine

Peat is spread to dry for burning in winter

No planning permission, no EIA

ECJ in 1999:

“Ireland has not denied that no project for the extraction of peat...has been the subject of an impact assessment” (C-392/96)

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

Nothing has changed since 1999!

E.g. Bord na Móna (Irish),

Klasmann Deilmann (German),

Pindstrup Mosebrug (Danish)

Development 1: The Commission’s role

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.”

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.

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 CuívMinister 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)?

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).

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?

Question 3: Why did the Commission not bring an action for interim measures (injunction) in 2012?

Mouds bog, Co. Kildare

(Non)Development 3: Peatlands outside Natura 2000

• No effective action to address peat extraction outside protected areas in Ireland. No planning permission, no EIA.

• In terms of scale, Bord na Móna (semi-state company) alone extracts 3 million tonnes per year (EPA, 2011)!

• Question 4: When will we see action to bring these activities into line with EU law?

Extraction for horticulture

Extraction for 3 peat-fired power stations

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.

Is this to be the fate of all Ireland’s raised bogs?

ReferencesEPA (2011) BOGLAND: Sustainable management of peatlands in Ireland. www.epa.ie

Irish Times (2012) Turf-cutters defying ban warned of prosecutions. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0601/1224317058294.html

CBD (2010) Ireland: 4th national report to the CBD. http://www.cbd.int/doc/world/ie/ie-nr-04-en.pdf

Ó Cuív (2012) Statement to the Dáil, 6 March 2012. http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/03/06/00025.asp