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Vote to help stop the destruction of Ireland‘s Peatland
Bogs!
Friends of the Irish Environment need your help. We
have applied for funding to help stop the mechanised destruction of Ireland’s
Peatland Bogs from the European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA), a
group of outdoor companies raising money to put into conservation projects. The
money will only be used directly for expenses like funding advertisements in
rural papers – FIE members work as volunteers. We have reached the shortlist
and the public can now vote for their favourite conservation project. Please go
to http://www.outdoorconservation.eu/project-voting-category.cfm?catid=3 to vote and spread the word about this vital cause – and
ask all your colleagues, family and friends to get involved. Please vote to help
stop the destruction now.
THE TURF CUTTING DEBATE
FIE found no defenders of EU law in the recent two day debate on turf cutting. In fact, we were singled out for vilification – or a badge of honour in our 15th year since we were established to assist in bringing in EU environmental law in Ireland.
Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív: With no disrespect, the problem is that the Friends of the Irish Environment will never rest happy. People come and go in Brussels.
Minister Jimmy Deenihan: They are not in Government.
Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív: They will continue going to Brussels, and this has been the problem from the beginning.
Minister Jimmy Deenihan: If we do what we are supposed to do we will–––––
An Leas–Cheann Comhairle: I must call Deputy Barry Cowen.
Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív: I ask the Minister not to underestimate them. They have a cosán dearg beaten to Brussels.
INVESTIGATING IRISH DRINKING WATER
FIE is continuing its investigations into Irish drinking water quality. We are particularly grateful for the information we are receiving from the public on lead and cryptosporidium. But please provide as much detail as possible – we will keep the information confidential but without detail our investigations are much more difficult.
YOUR DRINKING WATER
As a service to the public, FIE is offering residents who are concerned about the quality of their water an enquiry service. To request a water report for your drinking water test results
CLICK HERE
Enter the Requested Details and we will check the all test results since 2002 for your water supply and send you a report by email, showing the test results.
FIE has appealed a licensce for more expansion of the mussel industry in Dunmnanus Bay. We cite the Marine Institute's recognition that toxic contamination continues in Kenmare, Bantry and Dunmanus Bays when it excluded these bays from a reduced sampling programe in November 2011.
FIE's submission to the Peatlands Council's Public Consultation questions if the Council is meeting its terms of reference or simply sending the fool further with yet another consultation period. Has the Council advised on the recent scientific and policy review BOGLANDS by the EPA? Has the Council clarified Ireland's 'obligations to protect key habitats'? Has it determined the available assistance from the State? All of these were part of its terms of reference - as well as this public consultation on a national peatlands policy. 
FIE has escalated its campaign to prevent the doubling of stocking rates on Ireland's Disadvantaged Areas, much of which are the sensitive mountains and blanket bogs of rural Ireland.
FIE has written to the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney asking him to reconsider the new requirement for hill farmers to double their stocking rates to qualify for grant payments. Changes recently announced to the Disadvantaged Area Scheme which includes 100,000 farmers, require them to double their stocking rate from one sheep to two per hectare.
DECISION IGNORED EU COMMISSIONER RULING 
FIE has found that in spite of an unequivocal statement by the European Commissioner for the Environment that no extension to the slurry spreading season be permitted in Ireland, the Minister for the Environment extended this period into the last two weeks of October. This period saw some of the heaviest rainfall in Irish history, washing the slurry into drinking water sources across Ireland.
The recently announced appointment of a long standing Director of the EPA, however competent, to the top EPA post will mitigate against the implementation of the recommendations of the 2011 ‘Review of the Environmental Protection Agency'.
FIE's work on analysing the failure by Local Authorities to provide clean and wholesome drinking water has shown that 1,153,732 people are receiving water that is seriously and persistently over the legal parameters. These supplies have been placed by the EPA on the Remedial Action List which the law requires the public to be notified - but there has been virtually no public notification whatsoever. And the Remedial Action List only reveals public supplies in need of urgent action. No mention is made of private or public group water schemes which cover a further 500,000 people and are generally poorer in quality.
Friends of the Irish Environment said the proposal risk based inspection programme for septic tanks would not meet the terms of the European judgment. 
FIE has welcomed Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Simon Coveney, TD, decision to refuse the Federation of Irish Fishermen's [FIF] request to allow the commercial fishing of sea bass in the Celtic Sea.
Angry at the Government's new Regulations and hard line on the end to turf cutting on protected bogs, the Turf Cutters have withdraw from the Government's mediation structure, the Peatland's Council.