Sir, – Reconciling the environmental, cultural and economic issues around the proposed ban on turf cutting is not easy, as the current airing of opposing views within Government circles shows.
Set against global and national environmental issues are the more local but equally valid concerns of tradition, culture, and increasing living costs in rural communities. As others have pointed out, how can rural households be expected to forego relatively inexpensive turf-based home heating, whether it be an open fire, a kitchen stove or a wood-burner loaded with turf from a local bog?
The answers to this multifaceted conundrum must involve a mix of encouragement and incentivisation during a three- to five-year phasing out of domestic turf cutting. Financial support through substantially reduced electricity bills should be targeted at rural communities, particularly those in the midlands and the west. What would be the cost of such support, in parallel with a drive towards renewable energy, and could it be met from ring-fenced carbon tax receipts?
Fortunately, many rural communities already appreciate of the value of their peatlands, and some are taking active steps towards bog restoration with Government and EU support: Clara, Abbeyleix, Mountbellew and Mullagh, among others.
Government is to be applauded for their actions and intentions in halting the exploitation of bogs in this climate and biodiversity crisis, but greater clarity and better communication is critical, not least in defining the scale of acceptable local turf cutting during a phased transition to bog restoration.
Although a phased reduction is more realistic, there is a strong argument for immediate cessation of machined peat exploitation even at local scales – after all, small-scale cutting of numerous bogs adds up to large-scale destruction from which it will take many decades to recover.
We have already lost 99 per cent of our midland raised bogs, and most that remain are degrading rapidly, so the urgency of this debate cannot be overstated. – Yours, etc,
HENRY LAMB,
Clara,
Co Offaly.