The Agriculture Minister has confirmed that while the exercise of turbary rights by persons in possession of a folio number for bog plots are subject to lawful regulation by the State, this could in some cases also include a limitation or removal on the exercise of those rights entirely.
So says local Independent TD Carol Nolan after she sought clarity on the matter from Charlie McConalogue.
Deputy Nolan had sought clarification from the Minister on whether persons in possession of a folio number for bog plots would have their turbary rights removed or infringed upon by either the State or any private company or semi-State company.
Deputy Nolan said: “I am deeply alarmed by the tone and emphasis of the Minister’s reply.
“Especially because it is just over two months since this Government almost tore itself apart trying to assure those with plots of bog-land that turbary rights would in fact be protected from the wilder excesses of Minister Ryan’s turf-banning agenda.
“From a statutory basis it has been absolutely clear since at least 1951 that “right of turbary,” in relation to bogland, means a right to cut and carry away turf from the bog-land and includes the right of preparing and storing on the bog-land any turf cut therefrom.
“Now we are in a situation where a Minister is unable or unwilling to provide a basic assurance that even persons in possession of a folio number for bog plots with associated turbary rights will have that right protected.
“The Minister says in his reply to me that as a general principle, it is settled law that private property rights are not absolute in nature and may be delimited by law, as occasion requires, with a view to reconciling their exercise with the exigencies of the common good.
“The difficulty is however that the ‘common good’ as understood by this Green dominated Government encompasses a radical climate and decarbonisation agenda that is in stark contrast with the practical priorities of the vast majority of ordinary people.
“The Minister’s reply provides no comfort whatsoever to those people who have raised this matter with me.
“It also provides no indication that he even understands the sense of threat that these people would like addressed. Their ‘rights’ are a purely secondary consideration.
“That is a political miscalculation this Minister and this Government will sorely regret,” concluded Deputy Nolan.
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