"Cromwell". "Tenants". "Evictions". "Prisoners on the land". Mention a particular acronym in Connemara these days and this is the frustrated response from some small farmers. In the words of one south Galway man, "400 acres of land, and I can't remove a single rock".
The dreaded acronym is, of course, SAC - Special Areas of Conservation. Its salesman in the west is Eamon O Cuiv, Minister of State for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, though ultimate responsibility lies with Brussels and with his senior Government colleague, Sile de Valera.
Ploughing the field for him is the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) which has to identify the areas requiring protection under the EU Habitats Directive; Dr Noel Kirby, NPWS regional manager, is its diplomatic public face.
The fact that 80 per cent of Connemara is expected to be on the final designation map makes it a very live issue in the region. Recently, fears among environmentalists that the NPWS may be bowing to pressure from certain developers has been countered by trenchant criticism from farmers' spokesmen who feel the service isn't representing their views at all. Recent information meetings have been characterised by a lot of "roaring", such as one held last month in Gort. As property prices run riot in Galway city and environs, farmers facing SAC designations believe their land will be rendered worthless. They resent decisions being taken for them by EU bureaucrats who, they believe, may care about the environment but do not appreciate the status of land ownership in Irish history.
"The offer of £15 an acre in compensation for top-quality land is just not enough," says Mr Michael Kelly, chairman of the Irish Farmers' Association's South Galway branch. The Minister of State, who attended the meeting in Gort, has pointed out that an appeals mechanism is being established by his Department. The rub is that objections must be made on scientific grounds, which means that farmers will have to hire scientific expertise to argue their case.
Guaranteed to cool temperatures somewhat is the very wise decision to take turbary rights out of the equation. Very little commercial cutting takes place in Connemara, apart from around the Maam Cross area, where it has an important socioeconomic dimension.
It is expected that turf cutting will be allowed in up to 90 per cent of areas where it is already taking place but borders may be set to protect the internationally recognised Roundstone Bog. Mr O Cuiv has said a return to the slean does not have to be the option but there may be restrictions on machinery in certain locations. More significantly, those objecting to designations will not have to go through the appeals mechanism. In this case, the NPWS is committed to negotiation, compensation and relocation. The big problem is a glaring shortage of NPWS personnel at a time when a dearth of information can fuel unfounded fears and speculation. Apart from the SAC management plan itself individual plans will have to be prepared for each affected farm. There is also the long-term work on the Connemara National Park management plan.
The Heritage Council, which has been critical of the ad-hoc nature of designations in general and lack of harmonisation, has called for sufficient resources to enable the NPWS to engage in detailed discussions with all landowners, farmers, local authorities and other statutory bodies.
In its evaluation by Dr David Hickie, published last year, the Heritage Council recommended that management prescriptions for farming within SACs should be consistent, irrespective of whether a farmer avails of the optional Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) or not. Farmers who do not want to opt for REPs but find themselves within a SAC designation have been promised compensation for "provable losses".
Eamon O Cuiv acknowledges that the workload is enormous on the NPWS staff but also feels too much bureaucracy will have a "double negative" effect. "There is a huge amount of paperwork - originally there was so much that we could have destroyed every forest in the country," he told The Irish Times. "A major part of this is education; after all, Lough Corrib will always be protected as long as farmers also take part in angling. But we do have to devise a system that catches the destructive guy."
