An appeal from Friends of the Irish Turf Cutters not to take the fall for Government inaction and incompetence and go jail because successive elected officials and civil servants have undermined their way of life. Why should they punish themselves by going to jail when it is the Ministers of the time and the civil servants – many of them still there – who should be suffering for the lose of their traditional rights? False hope was what they have been given – and up the garden path they have been led.

“Only 4% consider the environment the issue that will influence their vote”.

Assessments carried out by expert ecologists for the European Commission in 2008 found that only 7% of Ireland’s habitats examined are in good status, with 46% inadequate and 47% bad. Yet Budget 2011 saw a fall the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government’s funding from €2.2 billion in 2010 to €1.6 billion in 2011 – a 28% cut. Under the National Recovery Programme, this will fall to €1 billion in 2014 – a reduction of more than 50% in 4 years…