Ireland has been referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for what the European Commission has deemed the failure of authorities to clamp down on private peat harvesting on sites below 50ha, it was announced on Thursday.
The Commission has claimed Ireland fails to comply with a directive concerning environmental impact assessments and the rules’ relevance to private peat cutters.
It remains to be seen whether the action is intended on clamping down on the milling of peat for use in horticulture, the cutting of turf on private lands or both.
The notice issued states that Ireland incorrectly wrote the first environmental impact assessment directive into Irish law after it passed in 1985, but that a change to the Irish legislation had been done after a 1999 CJEU ruling.
However, the Commission has said that “these legislative changes were not followed by enforcement action”.
Action
Ireland has taken “significant action to halt peat cutting” by Bord Na Móna since mid-2020, but there is “still significant peat cutting activity” not subject to planning permission or environmental impact assessment” occurring in the private sector, the announcement states.
Brussels noted that the Environmental Protection Agency “has been undertaking enforcement action” against private operators on sites larger than 50ha and that this has resulted in some commercial peat operators “halting their activities”.
It said that the continuation of peat cutting on sites without planning permission or environmental impact assessment without enforcement action especially relates to sites smaller than 50ha.
“Despite evidence of these ongoing illegal activities, enforcement action at the local level is not being taken,” the Commission said.
The Commission’s referral of the case to the CJEU comes after Ireland received a letter of formal notice in July 2019 and a reasoned opinion in July 2020 on the matter.
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