Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 February 2015
549. Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of bog owners affected by special area of conservation designation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6962/15]
View answerAt the time of the initial designation process for Ireland’s network of special areas of conservation, my Department sourced its land-ownership information from a number of sources, including the Property Registration Authority, the then Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (as successor to the Irish Land Commission), the Land Parcel Identification System used by that Department and the electoral register.
While I understand that every reasonable step was taken over the years to identify landowners and notify them directly of the proposed designation of sites, it is not possible to guarantee that all such persons had been identified. It is commonplace, particularly in the case of bogs, that individuals’ interests in land are not registered at all, or not in their own names. Turbary rights, in particular, are not always up to date or do not always accurately reflect actual land use activity.
The development of the land direct system by the Property Registration Authority in recent years has allowed much more comprehensive land-owner identification. This has improved my Department’s ability to reach as many interested parties as possible. For example, my Department issued letters to some 6,700 identified landowners and users in 2011, advising them of the cessation of turf cutting on the 53 raised bog special areas of conservation and of the availability of compensation under the cessation of turf cutting compensation scheme.
