Commercial peat extraction is subject to a dual consent process requiring planning permission and, for sites over 50 hectares, an Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) licence from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). There has been a history of widespread non-compliance with this dual consent process with many operators in the sector lacking planning permission and / or an IPC licence.
Following a 2019 High Court judgment which re-affirmed, inter alia, that commercial peat extraction absent planning permission constitutes unauthorised development, the onus is on operators to first regularise their past activities via the planning system and then secure planning permission before any recommencement of harvesting could take place.
The suspension of commercial peat extraction has commercial implications for both operators in the sector and also for the horticultural sector. I am also aware that a recent unrelated Supreme Court judgment on the Substitute Consent mechanism within the planning system has further complicated the process facing operators. It is not open to the State to simply remove the requirement for operators to regularise their past unauthorised development.
Insofar as the availability of supplies for horticulture use in 2021 is concerned, officials from my Department will engage with their counterparts in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the matter and on the potential longer term solutions for the sector.
Rather than focusing on a recommencement of further commercial peat extraction, my immediate priority is on bog rehabilitation and restoration. This has significant potential to be part of our broader strategy to tackle climate and biodiversity challenges. Last month, the Government approved my proposals to provide funding of up-to €108m for the Bord Na Mona Enhanced Decommissioning, Rehabilitation and Restoration Scheme (EDRRS) to support a just transition in the midlands region, while protecting the storage of 100m tonnes of carbon, sequestering 3.2m tonnes of carbon out to 2050, enhancing biodiversity, creating jobs and contributing to Ireland's objective of being climate-neutral by 2050.
