Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has said that Ireland had to take its responsibilities in relation to the conservation of bogs “massively seriously”.
The Minister was responding on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland to comments from Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice who said that 'Ireland should not be told what to do by a foreign power'.
“We've worked very closely with farmers over the last number of years and indeed in terms of our national policy of taking decisions, which is radically changing how we deal with our bogs.
"As you know, over many years and decades, a lot of our electricity generation came directly from peat extraction, through Bord na Mona.
"And indeed, you know, the commercial sale of turf was a significant industry in Ireland as well. That is totally changed. And not only do we no longer produce electricity through peat, there's also no commercial peat extraction through Bord na Mona, we've also seen a situation where the amount of, private extraction of turf has massively reduced.”
Mr McConalogue said that between 2022 and 2023 peat extraction from blanket bogs had been reduced by 40 per cent.
Clearly, the situation now was very different from 10 years ago, he said. The situation needed to change significantly every year.
“Right now in Ireland, we have the largest projects anywhere in Europe underway in terms of bog restoration, with 50,000 hectares of bogs being restored and work is commencing in 30 of our 53 raised bogs.
“Work is continuing and ramping up all of the time.”
The key to the progress that had been made to date was the relationship between the Government and farmers and landowners in relation to restoring bogs.
This was “massively important work” and something in which farmers had shown “massive cooperation”. There were 55,000 farmers involved in taking “significant action” on how upland bogs were managed and restored.
By Vivienne Clarke
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