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A Kerry farmer who has been protesting outside the Department of Agriculture in Tralee has been remanded on bail after being charged with obstruction and failing to comply with the direction of a Garda.
Brian O’Connor from Ballymacelligott insists he’s entitled to funding to maintain his protected blanket bog at Knockatarriv and plans to continue his protest until he gets an answer from the Department of Agriculture.
During his protest on 5 August, Mr O’Connor was arrested and later appeared before a special sitting of Tralee District Court charged with obstruction and failure to comply with the direction of a member of An Garda Síochána.
He was remanded to appear before the next sitting of Tralee District Court in September.
Protest
His protest, which is now in its sixth week, is to highlight his concerns that owners of protected bogs are not receiving funding they are entitled to through EU law.
Mr O’Connor is claiming the Department is ignoring environment protection laws, which he says is resulting in small farmers being forced off valuable EU sites.
He said his protest is about highlighting what he believes bog owners are entitled to because many owners are unaware that they are entitled to funding to maintain their land.
“I am getting a lot of enquiries from people who seem to be ignorant to the law on these habitats - it is fairly widespread up the west coast,” he said.
Nobody was notified about these European designated areas
“Nobody was notified about these European designated areas.”
Mr O’Connor claims the Department of Agriculture isn’t adhering to EU law and said the 1992 Habitats Directive states that landowners who protect and maintain bogland should receive funding for doing so.
The Habitats Directive is a European Union directive adopted in 1992 as an EU response to the Berne Convention. It is one of the European Union’s directives in relation to wildlife and nature conservation.
He said bog owners "up the country" are cutting turf, as they haven’t been notified and are unaware that their land is protected.
"They firmly believe they aren’t doing anything wrong,” said Mr O’Connor.
“They are ignorant about it, as they weren’t notified of the designations. They also weren’t notified of their entitlement to funding.”
Isolated issue
Mr O’Connor says he is continuing his protest to fight for farmers throughout the country and for those who he said are unaware they are entitled to funding.
“It is not an isolated issue - it is a huge problem and the politicians are starting to pick up on it because of my protest,” he added.
"It’s hard to fathom how any TD would think that it’s okay not to give owners of the protected land a few pennies for maintaining it - you couldn’t make it up.
“These sites, especially the ones owned by farmers, are under statutory management requirements which the Department are obliged to put in place and is part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding.”
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