After years of government officials and government bodies talking about SAC’s and denial after denial on what was being put to them on this issue by Michael Fitzmaurice TD that SAC’s had not legally being put in place, it has now emerged that letters are being circulated to landowners informing them that the move to SAC’s are now happening . I have challenged Ministers and councils when they were putting county development plans together on t…his issue but they denied and basically told me I was wrong on this matter.
I have enclosed letters received from department that will go to land owners that the statutory instrument is to proceed to make these sites into SAC’s and I think there’s a duty on me to inform the public about this as there may be people out there that may challenge their lands being made into SAC’s . I note that turloughs and woodland are in first traunch. I will monitor the the situation and keep people informed, I am calling on land owners to be aware of what’s happening to their land . Ministers have denied to me when I put it to them that the SAC’s were not in existence until the instrument was put in place.There may be more twists to this situation and it’s very disingenuous of the department to be talking about fines from Europe when it is the department themselves that has not done what they were supposed to do and in my view this while situation is questionable.
There is now an obligation on the Minister to inform land, bog and turbary owners about this situation before they proceed any further because this was not done in the past and it is essential that this happens before anything is put in place.