Environmental Pillar welcomes referral of Ireland to Court on Justice on peat cutting
The Environmental Pillar has welcomed the European Commission’s decision to refer Ireland to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to properly comply with the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive in relation to peat cutting projects.
Fintan Kelly, senior Land Use Officer at the Environmental Pillar, said: “The European Commission’s decision is welcome and necessary.
The Commission says Ireland has not done enough to ensure that peat cutting activities, particularly smaller sites below 50 hectares, are subject to the required planning and environmental impact assessment controls.
“Ireland has been dragging its feet on properly complying with the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive in relation to industrial peat mining.
While Ireland has taken some steps, including action by the EPA on larger commercial sites and rehabilitation of Bord na Móna lands, the failure of local authorities to regulate other large commercial operators forced the Commission to take action.
National reporting puts the total extraction of bogs, both commercial and domestic, at 70,020 hectares.
However, satellite assessment of the midlands bogs alone indicates that peat extraction covers 119,000 hectares—70% higher than what is reported for all peatlands combined.
The scale of the destruction is massive and the failure of the state to address it seems systemic across all levels of government.
The political will to properly regulate this damaging sector clearly doesn’t exist within Ireland, so we are very grateful to the European Commission for stepping in.
“The Environmental Pillar collectively and a number of member organisations separately, have been engaging with the Commission on this for a long time so it's satisfying to see the Commission stepping in to uphold the rule of law and safeguard Ireland's peatlands.”
The protection, rewetting, and restoration of these vital habitats is necessary to combat the climate and biodiversity crises.
The ongoing illegal, unregulated destruction of Ireland’s bogs is totally incompatible with existing legal commitments.
A National Land Use Review has underlined that these industrial cutover bogs must be urgently rehabilitated if Ireland is going to meet climate change obligations.
“Undisturbed bogs act as natural carbon sinks. However, degraded or drained bogs emit millions of tonnes of carbon annually.
As well as providing a habitat for a rich variety of rare plants, insects and animals, bogs act as giant sponges, absorbing heavy rainfall and mitigating catastrophic winter flooding.”
Tristram Whyte, Conservation, Policy and Fundraising Officer Irish Peatland Conservation Council said: “Irish Peatland Conservation Council welcome the European Commission’s referral of Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failure to implement the Environmental Impact Assessment Directives, the environmental damage caused by industrial peat extraction has wider impacts than just the habitat that is destroyed including our precious rivers and lakes.
Following a hearing at the Oireachtas in December 2025 where the IPCC presented to the Joint Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy regarding illegal peat extraction, the Committee have published 13 recommendations to the Government which we need to see enacted to help reverse the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency”.