Tighter rules are to be brought in by the Department of the Environment to govern small-scale turf harvesting, following threats by the European Union to impose a €27,000-a-day fine.
The changes were introduced quietly by way of a little-noticed Dáil motion last week by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, despite complaints from Fine Gael and Labour.
Under the changes, people harvesting turf in plots larger than 10 hectares (25 acres) will have to carry out environmental impact assessments, and seek planning permission if they could cause "significant" environment effects.
However, the Opposition has warned that turf cutting on commonage bogs - known as turbary rights - could be restricted because the total area could exceed 10 hectares, even though individuals only harvest small sections of it.
The new regulations are necessary following a 1999 ruling by the European Court of Justice which found that Ireland had failed to implement properly an EU environmental ruling.
In July 2003 the European Commission applied to the Court of Justice to impose a €27,000-a-day fine because of the State's failure to act on the court's judgment.
"The European Commission has indicated a concern and action is needed," Mr Roche told the Dáil last week.
Following talks with Brussels, the commission has agreed that planning permission would not apply where peat extraction is unlikely to damage the environment. The new regulation will not affect the large tracts of poor farmland that are already deemed Special Areas of Conservation and where activities are already restricted.
Unaware of the changes until brought to their notice yesterday, the IFA complained that the department should first have consulted land users.
Expressing concern about the possible scope of the regulations, Fine Gael Longford-Roscommon TD Denis Naughten warned: "The word significant gives rise to huge concern in my constituency where people who cut turf, either for their own use or on a small commercial basis, could be roped in under this definition.
"If one takes turf cutting on a contiguous basis on a bank of turf where individuals all along that bank have half-acre plots, one could very easily reach some of the thresholds in the regulations.
"Then some official or do-gooder from some part of the EU, who is visiting here and who wants turf cutting to be abolished because all of the turf in his or her own country has been cut, could decide that the turf cutting has a significant effect."
Discounting the Opposition's fears, the department said yesterday the chances that turf cutting would cause "significant effects" on the environment outside of SAC areas were "practically nil".
Turf cutters in Galway and Roscommon are adamant they will continue to cut turf in spite of the EU directive. There is a derogation in place until 2008 which allows landowners to cut turf for domestic use.
