There was widespread criticism of advertisements placed in a number of local and national papers at the end of last month which said that hundreds of bogs would be affected by new regulations on turf cutting – when in reality there were only three.
Fine Gael Cllr Joe Mellet raised the issue before the start of the February meeting of Mayo County Council. He told the meeting that following on from a question by Dep John O’Mahony, the National Parks and Wildlife service had admitted that there was a mistake in the advertisement, which said that hundreds of bogs would be affected in the Moy River Basin area.
Independent councillor Michael Holmes told the meeting: “I saw that ad and knew straight away that there was something wrong with it, as there are very few raised bogs in the area. They completely misled the whole county.”
However Cllr Holmes, who has been a vocal supporter of turfcutters’ rights for many years, said that in the future there will be no more turf cutting in the county.
“While the people who aren’t affected by this ban in that area can continue cutting turf, it comes with a number of strict conditions such as no sausage machines and you can’t sell turf from it anymore. Also when the bog is exhausted, you won’t get any more turbary rights, like you did before. I said this 20 years ago and people looked at me like I was mad, but it’s coming to pass now.”
