Duchas ‘imposing reign of terror on farmers’
West Limerick TD Michael Collins the brother of Munster MEP Gerard Collins has also told the All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Environment in the Dail that he is very concerned at mis-information given out by Duchas in West Limerick.
It is totally contrary to what is said by Duchas officials at the Committee meetings in Dail Eireann, he said.
Deputy Collins added, "I have called on Minister Martin Cullen to either restrain Duchas from their current course of action or to abolish the agency entirely and replace it with a new agency which is more in step with the reality on the ground.'
He also said the Government cannot continue encouraging alternative farm enterprises such as wind energy and forestry on one hand, and discourage these initiatives through another agency.
Deputy Collins, and Dan Neville, TD; Senator Michael Finucane; and councillors from West Limerick, North Cork and North Kerry and representatives of the Regional Game Council were among the attendance of more than 500 at a second meeting last Thursday at Templeglantine, Co Limerick.
At the first meeting on the designation of North Munster uplands as a Special Protection Area (SPA) for the preservation of the Hen Harrier, 800 farmers gathered.
Duchas Regional Manager, Paddy Keane, told the meeting that planning applications for forestry were being forwarded to Duchas for observation.
He said this should not have occurred and has now been discontinued, following instructions to this effect issued to the Forestry Department.
However, the unanimous message to him from farmers at the meeting was to advise his superiors to keep all Duchas officials out of the North Munster uplands area until consultation takes place with farmers, in which the implications of SPAs for land owners are clarified.
The meeting rejected outright Duchas procedures for publication of maps of proposed SPAs, to be followed by discussion.
Landowners said publication of the map would impose restrictions forthwith, and farmers would be forced through an appeals system, in order to be de-listed from SPA designation.
The meeting heard from forestry company director Nicholas Cotter that land owners are in a state of confusion because officials in Duchas are contradicting each other in the information they were giving to farmers.
He had failed to get a response from Duchas to a list of questions forwarded several weeks ago.
He said there appeared to be no guidelines available to farmers as to what would be permissible in a designated area.
