Minister for Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan has said turf cutters received a very good and fair compensation package.
He was responding to the concerns of turf cutters who staged a protest in Co Galway yesterday.
The minister said the regulations involving turf cutters are now the law of the land, and also European law, one which was landed with this Government and about which the previous government did very little.
Mr Deenihan said there was a very good compensation package for turf cutters, who will get €2,000 a year this year and can avail of a package worth over €23,000 in the next 15 years.
He said the Government was not taking bogs off anyone, and they will still own their own bogs.
When these bogs were being designated as special areas of conservation, he said people had the opportunity to object.
It was very unfortunate, he said, but now very difficult to ''de-designate'' a bog that had been preserved as a special area of conservation, as it was with all Special Areas of Conservations right across Europe.
He said perhaps this was something that would have to be sorted out legally under the terms of the Habitats Directive.
