An Independent TD has hit out at State agencies who she says has failed to engage with peat harvesters, subjecting them instead to “moralising lectures” – after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report saying large-scale, illegal commercial extraction of peat is widespread in Ireland.
The EPA’s first report about large-scale peat extraction in Ireland – which does not refer to the extraction of peat as fuel for domestic use – said that the sector does not operate within planning or environmental laws.
The report explained that “up until 2020, Bord na Móna lawfully operated 9 different peatland complexes across 11 counties. All of these bogs were operated in accordance with Integrated Pollution Control Licences issued by the EPA.”
While the extraction of peat at the Bord na Móna peatlands has now ceased in accordance with EU regulations, the EPA says “it has investigated 38 sites across seven counties where large-scale commercial peat extraction is taking place without any of the necessary authorisations from the local authorities”.
The counties are Offaly, Kildare, Tipperary, Westmeath, Roscommon, Longford and Sligo, the EPA says, adding that large-scale commercial peat extraction is being carried on without any of the necessary authorisations from the local authorities.
“These illegal operations are contributing to an export trade of 300,000 tonnes of peat annually, valued at almost €40 million,” the EPA said, adding that they believed “catastrophic damage” was being caused to local environments; “decimating vital ecosystems for biodiversity, culture, and research; and destroying the country’s natural carbon sinks – precious boglands that absorb greenhouse gases and are important in the fight against climate change.”
The EPA has already prosecuted a number of the peat extraction businesses through the courts and closed them down, but they say that many peat extraction operators have been able to evade prosecution by reducing their are4as under operation to below 50 hectares.
However, Independent TD for Offaly Carol Nolan accused the state and its agencies of failing to undertake “good-faith engagement” with “those engaged in peat harvesting.”
“This is more of the same,” she said, adding that peat harvesters have “been subjected to moralising lectures and agencies wielding their statutory authority against them for years now.”
“I am sure that the harvesters are sick to death of the logic of enforcement prevailing over constructive engagement. They can try to stamp out peat harvesting but my sense is the practice is too engrained, too important, and too treasured,” the Independent TD said.
“Peat harvesting and those engaged in it, particularly those utilising their ancient turbary rights will always have my support,” she added.
Most of the extracted peat (which excludes sites where turn is cut for domestic use) was used for Horticulture, Mushroom Growing and Animal Bedding, the EPA found.
Their research also showed that the amount of peat exported from Ireland has fallen by two thirds since 2020.
Ireland rushed to end peat extraction ahead of the 2030 deadline imposed by the EU – with peat harvesting ceasing in 2021. Twenty years ago peat was involved in more than 40% of Ireland’s energy production, but now briquettes and peat for horticulture are imported from other countries, a practise Michael Fitzmaurice TD described as “bringing sand to the Arabs”.
Last year, the CSO reported that Ireland had imported 172,000 tons of peat since 2016, including nearly 20,000 tons in 2023.
Groups representing the Irish horticulture sector previously told an Oireachtas committee that shortages of horticultural peat “left the industry with only one solution – importing peat”.
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