Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 25 Feb 1998

Vol. 487 No. 7

Written Answers. - Special Areas of Conservation.

Pádraic McCormack

Question:

252 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands the position regarding her proposals for compensation to bog owners, who are denied top current turf cutting rights due to the fact that their bogs have been declared special areas of conservation; and if she will make grant aid available to those people to install alternative methods of domestic heating. [5290/98]

Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands (Miss de Valera)

In the context of discussions with the farming organisations on the introduction of SACs, it was agreed that compensation be available either through REPS, which will provide standard rate top-ups for those with SAC land, or by claiming for actual losses from my Department.

My Department has offered compensation payment of £1,000 per acre for the purchase of turbary rights or relocation to another bog where this is available with £100 per mile once-off payment — subject to a maximum payment of £500 — where extra travel is involved.

The concept of market value as a basis for assessing compensation payable was explicitly accepted in December 1996 by the farming organisations — IFA/ICMSA — as a fair basis for compensation in the context of Partnership 2000, where the agreed text reads "the Government agrees that a fair and proper level of compensation shall be paid having regard to the level and extent of restriction and all reasonable losses arising as a result of SAC/SPA designations and to the difference between the value pre-designation for environmental purposes and subsequent value of the land consequent on designation as an SAC/SPA".

Since coming to office, I have at all times insisted that no stone should be left unturned in making the SAC process acceptable to those affected. Apart altogether from my commitment to fairness, it is my firm belief that conservation cannot work unless local people willingly accept it and co-operate with the effort.

In that context, while accepting the validity of the offer already made, I have asked my officials to again look at the situation, to see what elements of a package might be seen to meet the individual circumstances that arise in this area.