Sir, – It is welcome that the new Government has announced €15 million for "rehabilitation" of 33,000 hectares of boglands in the Midlands (Editorial, July 25th). Yet this is less than half of the total land controlled by Bord na Móna. Questions still remain as to the fate of the remainder.
There is a similar amount of bogland in the Midlands in private ownership, some of which is controlled by turf-cutting contractors or companies mining peat for horticulture. We have no clear direction as to what is destined for this land. An overarching peatland strategy published in 2013 was supposed to have dealt with these issues but remains largely unimplemented.
The European Commission is taking Ireland to court for our abject failure to implement nature conservation laws that have been on the books for 20 years, including a failure to introduce management measures for any of the vast blanket bogs in the west of Ireland or in upland areas. Nearly all our bogland birds face extinction.
The Wildlife (Amendment) Bill is before the new Dáil which proposes to remove hard-won nature conservation designations so that there can be more turf-cutting. This is insane. The State (ie, the public) is paying €15,000 in fines every day due to our failure to carry out an environmental assessment of a wind farm in Co Galway that resulted in a devastating landslide in 2003.
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So yes, while there has been a “happy shift” in our perception of peatlands, we are going to need a lot more love and attention for these precious habitats if we are to address adequately our biodiversity and climate emergency. – Yours, etc,
PÁDRAIC FOGARTY,
Irish Wildlife Trust,
Dublin 7.