An Environmental NGO has launched a High Court challenge against a decision of the Environment Protection Agency to accept an application for the industrial extraction of peat.

Just under €2m is to be spent on the administration of a programme for the accelerated restoration of Ireland’s protected bogs over the coming 12 months.

There was a time Ireland’s raised bogs were considered to be of little worth but now their value as a refuge for rare and beautiful plant and animal species is recognised across the world, writes Donal Hickey