An Taisce is calling on Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage James Browne to provide a plan of action to combat illegal peat extraction.

The National Trust for Ireland said it is "very concerned" by an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report detailing 38 large-scale illegal peat extraction operations across seven counties.

The EPA said these operations do not have the necessary authorisations from the local authorities and are contributing to an export trade of 300,000t of peat annually, valued at almost €40 million.

An Taisce strongly supports the report’s call for local authorities to employ their powers to ensure full enforcement of the law.

"The environmental degradation caused by this unauthorised peat extraction has a major impact on nature conservation and essential ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, water filtration and flood attenuation, and highly unique floral and faunal diversity.

"Ireland has been subject to legal actions at European level for well over two decades on the peat extraction issue, including a referral to the European Court in 2024 for failure to halt extraction in legally protected nature conservation sites," An Taisce said.

The 38 sites covered by the EPA report do not fall under family-related turbary rights for personal use, but relate to large-scale illegal commercial harvesting for profit and, primarily, for export.

An Taisce said that this "raises serious questions about how such significant quantities of an illegally extracted product can be exported and what customs and permitting processes are allowing this".

The environmental charity added that "ultimately, there is a significant and systemic failure by local authorities to apply their enforcement powers in the area of peat extraction".

While the enforcement of extraction on sites above 50ha is the responsibility of the EPA, enforcement below the 50ha threshold falls to local authorities.

An Taisce noted that local authorities have pointed to the complexity, lengthiness, and resource-intensive nature of peat extraction enforcement cases.

"While there is certainly a need to ensure urgent resourcing of legal enforcement capacity, local authorities must still take accountability for their critical role in enforcing the law around peat extraction and failures to do so to date," it said.

An Taisce, which acts as a custodian for over 20,000ac of bogland, has echoed the EPA’s call for local authorities to immediately take urgent enforcement action with regard to illegal peat extraction.

It has also urged the Government to "drive coordinated action at national level to bolster enforcement, ensure consistency of approach, and ensure adequate resourcing for holding transgressions of environmental law to account".

The new Planning and Development Act 2024 provides ministerial powers to establish regional enforcement bodies to tackle activities such as peat extraction.

"While such bodies, if created, have the potential to improve enforcement, these provisions of the Act have not yet come into force, and the evidence in EPA's report clearly indicates the need for effective action immediately," An Taisce said.

"Tackling the illegal peat extraction crisis is long overdue, and the lack of serious action is hampering our ability to respond to the twin climate and biodiversity emergencies.

"National government and local authorities can no longer allow our boglands to be so blatantly exploited and destroyed," it added.