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Thursday, June 03, 2010
A way of life
Turf cutters in County Roscommon are this week vowing to continue to fight a ban on domestic turf cutting on raised bogs.
On Friday Environment Minister John Gormley announced that he is bringing domestic turf cutting on 32 raised bogs across the country to an end.
The Minister believes that the bogs, which have been designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), contain “rare and threatened natural habitat that is protected under National and European law”.
It is estimated that the turf cutting ban will directly affect as many as 6,000 rural dwellers who may well become “rare and threatened” under the minister’s plan.
Turf cutters have been on the bogs for centuries. It appears that the Minister was in no mood to reach a compromise with them or even engage with them in any meaningful manner.
It should have been possible and must still be possible to allow rural people to cut turf for their own purposes.
Yes environmental concerns have to be taken into consideration, but in a time of great economic hardship and uncertainty for families affected by the decision reality has to come into the equation and compromise is the only way forward.
Turf-cutters are now on a collision course with the authorities because they have vowed to go to jail, if necessary, to protect their rights.
Minister Gormley has announced an interim compensation scheme, which he said would be put in place to assist those affected with their fuel costs for the coming winter.
The Minister did acknowledge that a number of people relied on these bogs for their fuel needs and he said the government intended to find the most appropriate way of meeting these needs. “The interim fund aims to address their fuel needs for this winter as the details of longer-term arrangements are finalised,” Minister Gormley said.
For turf cutters it’s not about money.
It’s about their rights to cut turf on their own plots.
It’s about culture. It’s about tradition.
It’s about a way of life that has been handed down the generations.
They don’t want to see their bogs ruined either.
They want to work with the Minister to find a way forward.
For Minister Gormley it’s about implementing a directive that the bureaucrats, who have never spent a day on a bog or who have no appreciation of how much part of the rural way of life turf cutting is, say is the only way forward.
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