Gerry Farrell, Chairman of Moate Anti-household Charges was at the recent stand off on at Clonmoylan bog. Here he describes what is happening.

Domestic turf cutters at Clonmoylan bog in Galway have been cutting turf on their legally held private properties for the last hundreds of years. Now they find themselves in a bitter battle with the Gardai.

The Government have issued orders that turf can no longer be cut on their private plots. No proper law was enacted or an agreement signed by either parties. Instead bullying tactic, intimidation and pressure have been used against our ordinary citizens, similar to the House-hold charges.

Army helicopters, private spotter aeroplanes, armed response units of the Gardai and Crime Scenes Investigation vans have been deployed.

The turf cutters are all law abiding citizens and but they are being intimidated while they try to carry out their right to cut their own turf for domestic use.

The Government with the instructions of European Parliament, Angela Merkel, can now walk into your house and say “we want to preserve it “without going through any proper legal channels!

Enda Kenny stated that Fiannaa Fail signed up for preservation of our bogs a decade ago. Nothing was done about it back then when they were giving away our gas and oil.

The questions we now want answered is what is the cost of running the helicopters and aeroplanes that now watch turf cutters every day? Where is the money coming from?

Bord na Mona have dug up and destroyed millions of acres of our bog land to generate electricity, when emphasis should have been on wind power and solar energy. So why the bullying of turf cutters now?

A temporary deal was agreed between the turf cutters and their representatives, the turf cutters won on the day but it is far from over at this present time. It looks like all Irish Citizens are now under threat from European Parliament and Angela Merkel.