It’s time to say slán to the slean

TURF cutting may be banned several years before an anticipated ban comes into force. The turf-cutting season is well underway, but it could be one of the last.

Farmers and the Department of the Environment have an agreement whereby bog owners will be allowed to harvest turf in special areas of conservation (SACs) until 2015, but Connacht IFA president Michael Silke has accused the department of trying to renege on the agreement.

Over the past few months, he claims, department staff have been telling farmers in the midlands that they will have to stop cutting turf by 2008.