The Government has set the bar for requiring an Environmental Impact Assessment to be if activities "pose a significant threat to the conservation objectives" of a site. The correct legal test is if it "cannot be excluded, on the basis of objective information, that the activities will have a significant effect on that site, either individually or in combination with other plans or projects".

This key point is nowhere outlined better than in this submission to the EPA over the licensing of Westland's industrial extraction of peat in County Westmeath.

Read the Submission | Read FIE's Infringement Complaint to the EU about industrial peat extraction

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 Read our clarification

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Sirs;-

Recent statements by Councillor and Mayor Luke ‘Ming' Flannigan on RTE's Prime Time may have left viewers with certain misunderstandings of the facts.

The loss of raised bogs to turf cutting has been expressed by recent scientific reports in three ways:

• In their 2006 paper, "Assessment of impacts of turf cutting on designated raised bogs", Valverde and his co-cuthors record that: ‘All domestic [turf] cutting is for fuel peat. This activity has been going on for centuries and is the main cause for the reduction in the original raised bog area [in Ireland] from 311,000ha to current area of around 18,000ha [a reduction of over 94%]. Most of this cutting was carried out by hand but now most cutting is mechanised and appears like a scaled down version of the commercial type.'

• Ireland's 2007 Article 17 report to the European Commission required under the Habitats Directive recorded a further decrease of 36% [thirty-six] in active raised bog extent from 1994-2005.

• Finally, on 14 May 2010, Ireland's 4th National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity put it this way: ‘Raised bogs are most abundant in the lowlands of central and midwest Ireland. The habitat has been heavily exploited. It is estimated that there has been a 99% loss of the original area of actively growing raised bog, and one-third of the remaining 1% has been lost in the last 10 years.'

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AT 11.30am yesterday sixty odd Climate Campers of all ages strolled 2km from the camp beside the Shannonbridge Peat Burning Power Plant towards one of the Bord na Móna man-made brown deserts outside of the town. Equipped with some sacks, shovels, pillow cases, wheelbarrows, banners and good cheer, they started filling in the trenches made to drain the bogs with milled peat which was destined for burning at the power plant. The direct action continued for about 2 hours filling in a significant part of the trench.

Don't read the Irish Times report where EOGHAN MacCONNELL'S story about the camp must have been written some days before.

Visit the camp site  |   Read the EXCELLENT HANDBOOK, a primer on climate justice and, like the Camp, a ‘focal point for the creation of a movement in Ireland that resists the structures that have caused the climate crisis and demands justice for the affected communities, both at home and abroad'.

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Friends of the Irish Environment, who are supporting the Climate Camp at Shannonbridge, are referring Bord na Mona's immunity from prosecution under the Water Pollution Acts to the European Commission.

Section 27 of the 1946 Turf Act removed the obligation of Bord na Mona to comply with the Fisheries Acts which protect our waters. This is an infringement of EU environment law which requires protection of our water.

This case illustrates the European Commission's concern that Ireland's national laws are maintaining a system of parallel legislation which undermines EU Directives.

Press Release  |  FIE Peat Page

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CLIMATE CAMP
BORD NA MONA WATER POLLUTION IMMUNITY CHALLENGED
16 AUGUST 2009

Friends of the Irish Environment, who are supporting the Climate Camp at Shannonbridge, are referring Bord na Mona's immunity from prosecution under the Water Pollution Acts to the European Commission.

The group has pointed out that Section 27 of the 1946 Turf Act removed the obligation of Bord na Mona to comply with the Fisheries Acts which protect our waters.

FIE says ‘This is an infringement of EU environment law which requires protection of our water.

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PRESS RELEASE
FRIENDS OF THE IRISH ENVIRONMENT
17 JUNE 2009

GOVERNMENT BOG SALE STOPPED
PEAT ABSTRACTION ‘UNSUSTAINABLE'

The Department of the Environment has been embarrassed by the refusal of An Bord Pleanala to allow the development of a bog it had contracted to sell to Erin Horticulture of Kilballyskea Bog, Shinrone, County Offally for peat extraction.

The Department had been intending to use the site to relocate displaced peat producers from bogs that were designated conservation areas in the locality. When this did not happen, they offered the bog for public sale.

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One of two letters seeking the end of the immunity of Bord na Mona's operations from the Local Government (Water Pollution) Acts.

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One of two letters seeking the end of the immunity of Bord na Mona's operations from the Local Government (Water Pollution) Acts.

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FIE has begun a campaign to end the unauthorised extraction of peat which is now taking place on a vast scale covering thousands of hectares. With no records of the amount of peat extracted in any County, Ireland can not meet its legal obligation to ensure that before development consent is given projects likely to have significant effects on the environment be made subject to a requirement for development consent and an assessment with regard to their effect as recently required by the European Court of Justice. [C215/06, 49].

The peat is going not to retail garden centres which are sensitive to public campaigns but to the horticultural trade in the South East of England, Holland, South America - described by our Minster for Trade as an ‘environmentally friendly product.'

Read the first letter to a Minister | See the first photos |

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Mayo County Council's grant of permission for a 100MW peat and mixed fuel power plant has been questioned by An Bord Pleanala. They have asked the developers to justify the proposed use of 400,000 tons of peat annually given that the ‘proposal might be contrary to national policy to reduce power generation from peat as a fuel source'.

In a request for further information the developers have been asked to ‘consider and advise whether the proposed development can be operated using biomass and coal as fuel sources only.'

Meanwhile EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the conservation status of Irish peatlands is "particularly alarming" and that peat ‘does not represent a renewable resource or biomass, as confirmed by the guidelines of the International Panel on Climate Change.'

Irish environmental NGOs said that in view of the concerns being expressed by the planning appeals board and the European Commissioner, the National Climate Change Strategy should be revised ‘without delay' to end the use of peat as a fuel.

Our Press release

EU Parliamentary Questions

Letter from An Bord Pleanala

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FIE has joined with An Taisce, the National Trust and the Irish Peatland Conservation Council [IPCC] to protest against the grant of planning permission for a 100MW peat and mixed fuel power plant.

An Taisce and the IPCC have appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanala while FIE has raised concerns with the Minister for Natural Resources Eamon Ryan that the decision is stated to be on the basis of government policy when we had thought government policy was opposed to new peat-fired generating capacity.

FIE has also queried the European Commission to determine their position and if they have been notified about this proposal and its potential impact on the National Allocations Program for Ireland's carbon emissions.

According to the EPA, more than 23 million tons of carbon were lost in the 10 years from 1990 - 2000 from peat extraction for combustion in Ireland - and that's without considering the impact on the environment through burning a fossil fuel more polluting than coal

In County Mayo only 29% of the original peatlands remain.

Read the joint Press Release.

 Permission has now been refused on 7 October 2008.

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