Tá mé anseo anocht le labhairt faoi ábhar an-tábhachtach go deo, ábhar go bhfuil an-spéis, ní amháin ag muintir an iarthair inti, ach ag muintir na hÉireann fré chéile. Is i lár na seachtóidí a thosaigh an chaint ar an ábhar seo ar a dtugtar ASI, Areas of Scientific Interest, agus is é an Foras Forbartha a bhí ag plé leis. Anois is é Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí atá ag plé leis.
There is no dispute in my mind regarding the importance of the principle of outlining areas of scientific interest. An overwhelmingly large majority of people would concur completely with the idea of ASIs. The conflict has arisen because of the manner in which research and updating is being carried out. Thousands of privately owned acres of land have been designated by the OPW Wildlife Service as areas of scientific interest. Such designation has caused havoc among the poor farmers especially in the west of Ireland and in particular in Connemara. I and other people who have done some study on this believe that the manner in which designations of private property — I am not talking about State property or any multiple of State property, I am talking about private property — take place by the Office of Public Works is ultra vires and constitutes an act of great injustice against many small farmers in Ireland, and especially in Connemara. Too many small farmers have suffered as a result of this. It is about time this Government did something about it, something pragmatic, something that would alleviate the desperate situation that is now being experienced by small farmers, particularly in the west.
For example, I know five Connemara farmers who between them have 2,005 acres of a mountain bog. Approaches were made to those people by private investors who wanted to buy 800 acres for afforestation. The price was almost agreed on. It was hovering between £200 and £250 per acre. Eight hundred acres at £250 is £200,000. Those five farmers, smallholders with nothing only that type of land and bog and mountain which would not feed a snipe, had an opportunity of bettering themselves and their families by an income which would only come their way once in a lifetime. While negotiation were proceeding the proposed buyers checked to find out the level of grant that would be obtainable for afforestation. Lo and behold, they were told that no such money would be available because the land, the mountain or the bog which they intended to buy was now deemed an area of scientific interest. The people themselves, those five farmers to whom I have spoken individually, never heard of the term ASI, never heard of an area of scientific interest. Their land had been designated by a segment of this State known as the Office of Public Works. Without a by your leave, without consultation, without notification, without any talk of compensation, their land had been devalued overnight to the tune of £200,000. If that is not interference of the first order in private ownership of the citizen I am a Dutchman. It is despicable in this day and age that we have a section of this Government known as OPW going around this country putting circles around areas of farmland and private land and people not knowing this has been done.
I have done some research into this. I find no legal basis in European law or in Irish law for such designation. I firmly hold that the Office of Public Works and their Minister are not empowered to devalue private property by designating them as areas of scientific interest without enabling legislation to do so and without suitable legal compensatory arrangements having been put in place. We have a book here which was distributed by the Minister for the Environment a few weeks ago. On wildlife habitats there is one sentence which is very relevant to what I am speaking of. He says nonchalantly without any leithscéal de chinéal ar bith don rud atá déanta anuas tríd na blianta ó 1975: "In future areas of scientific interest drawn up by the Wildlife Service will be fully publicised. The views of landowners whose lands are affected by such areas will be fully considered and amendments to the Wildlife Act due for introduction later this year will deal with this matter further." Sin dar liomsa ag dúnadh an doras nuair atá an capall imithe — closing the stable door when the horse has bolted. Between 1975 and 1990 about 1,600 areas have been circled by the Office of Public Works as areas of scientific interest and now, after all that time, they are saying in future they will talk to the people who own private land. There is no great praise due to the Office of Public Works for being so benign to the poor farmers of the west. Unfortunately, though legislation is not retrospective, when the Wildlife Act of 1976 is eventually amended to take cognisance of these facts, it will apply only to future designations. What is to happen to all the private land designated since the mid-seventies which will be outside the ambit of the amended legislation? Who will compensate the small farmers affected between 1975 and 1990, or whenever the Act as amended becomes operable. Who will compensate them for something that happened to their property without their being told about it or consulted and without any compensation being given to them? Who will compensate the Clifden farmer, for example, who is making some of his land or bog available for an airport and who found out when the planning process was going through that it was suddenly in an area of scientific interest? He was never told about it, he never knew about it and now he is out of his £30,000.
The Office of Public Works insist on telling me and other people that they are doing no harm to the small farmers in the west. It is a shame that such harm is being done and has been done over the last 15 years. Who will compensate the five farmers I just spoke about for the £200,000 out of their pockets? Who will compensate the forest farmer in Moycullen who planted his trees and when he went to collect his grant was told: "You will get nothing because your land is an area of scientific interest"? He knew nothing about it. He was told nothing about it. He was not consulted. Who is going to compensate Údarás na Gaeltachta who purchased 1,200 acres of bogland for afforestation and now they are told they can do nothing with it? Who is going to compensate the 12 owners in common on the Aran Island who were making a commonage available for a golf course and who have been told it is an area of scientific interest and they cannot sell it? They cannot get anything for it. Still the Office of Public Works insist in discussions with me that they are not doing any harm to the poor landowners. Who will compensate a person like Harry Conroy, for example, over in Letterfrack?
