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“WE’RE BRINGING COALS to Newcastle.”
This is how Kevin Mahon, the managing director of the Irish branch of horticultural peat giant Klasmann-Deilmann, described the importation of around 4,000 tonnes of peat last September from Latvia to the company’s processing plant in Rathowen in Westmeath.
Speaking to local media, Mahon said that the peat was being stockpiled on the edge of a bog that Klasmann – the self-styled “leading corporate group in the international substrate industry” – had harvested right up to 2019 when the High Court stepped into the fray following a challenge to new State regulations to operate in the peat industry.
The September 2019 ruling made it clear that companies engaged in large-scale extraction above 50 hectares needed both planning permission and EPA licensing, as well as thorough environmental assessment as required under EU law.
Nearly all major companies in the sector, including Klasmann-Deilmann Ireland, have neither planning permission or licences for peat extraction – throwing the industry into disarray and impacting supply to the Irish horticultural industry.
Following the ruling, any large-scale peat company that wishes to operate within legal parameters must go through a multi-stage process to gain retrospective planning permission from An Bord Pleanála, followed by new planning permission to a local authority and then licensing from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Klasmann-Deilmann made an application for leave to apply for retrospective planning permission on its bogs in Longford and Westmeath in the summer of 2020. It was granted leave to apply in one application in mid-May 2022 and is still awaiting a decision in the other application expected this summer, more than two years since it applied.
The potential multi-year wait for regulatory approval would be “effectively a death sentence” for the industry, Mahon told the Longford Leader last October as the company’s importation of peat from Latvia garnered widespread media attention.
Reporting of the shipment led to a wave of calls from national politicians for emergency legislation to be brought in to allow the industry to recommence harvesting, calls that have continued to pepper the conversation in Leinster House well into 2022.
One important factor that failed to surface in debate is the fact that the EPA is investigating the activities of a dozen peat extractors for operating without a licence on lands where the agency suspects that large-scale extraction is taking place.
In the final article in our PEAT’S SAKE series, we can reveal that Klasmann-Deilmann Ireland has been under the agency’s watch since August 2020, including that:
Noteworthy sent a list of detailed questions to Klasmann-Deilmann and its Irish subsidiary Klasmann-Deilmann Ireland, however, they did not answer any of the questions raised.
We previously contacted Klasmann-Deilmann in February about the EPA’s findings up to that point. In a statement on 15 February, it said our queries relate to “sensitive corporate data and details” and that it was “not in the position to respond to it in more detail”.
This article was developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu as part of a cross-border project with TVNET in Latvia. As part of our PEAT’S SAKE series, we have also examined the peat trade and cutting on protected bogs. You can read these articles here.
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Ireland’s Amazon ‘absolutely devastated’
There is a long lineage of peat harvesting in Ireland, according to Dr John Connolly of Trinity College Dublin, with the earliest reference to draining peatlands dating back to the writings of Dublin Society fellow William King in 1685.
This was followed by the expansive work of the Bog Commissions in the early 1800s to produce a series of hand drawn maps of one million acres that could be drained and brought into production.
Although recommendations from the Commissioners were never acted upon, their reports were of considerable assistance to the Turf Development Board when it began to develop the bogs in the mid-1930s.
Dr Connolly, a peatland mapping expert, is currently working on a project to digitise the Commissioners’ maps to provide a baseline to calculate the amount of peat removed and the carbon lost to the atmosphere in the proceeding centuries.
From 20 years of analysing satellite imagery of Irish peatlands, Dr Connolly is expecting some big figures to emerge from the research.
“From the satellite perspective, we can see this massive change in the environment,” he told Noteworthy. “Industrial and commercial [peat extraction] is, in effect, completely removing that ecosystem.
“You see these black landscapes effectively. It’s akin to those images that we see of the Amazon rainforest where it’s been absolutely devastated.”
Commercial players
While Bord na Móna – with nearly 80,000 hectares of peatland at its disposal – has had an important hand to play in the exploitation of bogs across the Midlands – the semi-state is not the only entity involved in the industry.
Other commercial peat companies have been encouraged over the decades to set up by State agencies, with most operators today working in the horticulture peat sector.
While the State was encouraging the expansion of the industry, there was much less effort assigned to ensuring that the industry was strictly regulated, operating without planning permission or, with the exception of Bord na Móna, licences from the EPA.
The regulatory rules for large-scale extraction have been clear since the early 1990s, with commercial producers operating on over 50 hectares subject to a dual consent process and need both planning permission from a local authority and a licence from the EPA.
This was reemphasised in the March 2022 High Court decision that found Harte Peat Ltd – a major player in the Irish horticultural peat industry – was engaging in large-scale extraction without authorisation and in breach of strict EU environmental law.
In this case, the EPA had sought an injunction order for the cessation of peat extraction and associated works by Harte Peat on bogs in Westmeath.
Harte Peat, in its own words, is “one of the market leaders” in supplying peat to the global mushroom industry, exporting to five continents, making Ms Justice Siobhán Phelan’s ruling the highest profile case to come down against a large peat player in Ireland to date. The case is currently before the Court of Appeals.
Records released to our investigative team, however, show that another high-profile player in the market – Klasmann-Deilmann Ireland – is also under the watch of the EPA.
Storied history with Ireland
Klasmann-Deilmann describes itself as the leading corporate group in the international substrate industry, with sales and production companies in Europe, Asia and America.
The German company has a long and storied history in Ireland, advising the Turf Development Board in setting up its commercial operation in the 1930s, even supplying the initial equipment for the first mechanical harvesting of peat in the country.
The company has its own operation on the Westmeath-Longford border that had post-tax profits of over €525,000 in 2020 following a turnover of €15.5 million. The company owns a key peat processing plant in Ireland, and according to the EPA, also leases or has access to “significant tracts of peatland” in Tipperary.
The company previously applied for an EPA licence in 2014, however, the agency deemed it incomplete and did not accept it as a valid application. According to the agency, it held a pre-application meeting with the company in June 2019 in relation to a possible new licence application where environmental assessment requirements were discussed. However, no new licence application was made following this meeting.
The company is little known outside of the peat industry, apart from a recent foray into the media spotlight after the importation of peat from the Baltic region last September.
However, just months before this, on 23 June 2021, the EPA carried out its ninth inspection of bogs operated by Klasmann-Deilmann Ireland since August 2020 as it investigated if large-scale peat extraction was being carried out without an EPA licence.
Site inspection reports – released to Noteworthy under Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) Regulations – show that “significant peat extraction” was discovered during the first inspection on 19 August 2020 at a bog near Aghnavealoge in Longford “where the peat was being dug up by excavator” and stacked for drying.
Photos from the inspection show large sods of peat cut out of the bog, while the site inspection report states that the EPA inspectors met with Kevin Mahon, the managing director, and advised that he should contact its licensing section in relation to activities taking place.
Peat extraction continued
During a follow up inspection on 14 September 2020, peat harvesting was taking place at the same location, with a number of people “observed to be handling (turning) peat”.
At the next inspection on 20 November 2020, the “sod peat” that the EPA witnessed being excavated during the previous site visits was covered. In a separate area, the EPA inspectors noted that drainage works were being carried out.
During an inspection in April 2021 at peatlands in Derrydooan and Newpass, the EPA noted large stockpiles of milled peat, with some peat removed by a digger and placed into lorries for transport to its processing plant nearby in Rathowen.
The inspectors also noted that significant sod peat extraction had taken place on a large area adjacent to the milled peat area. An inspection of this area in May 2021 found sod peat had recently been removed, while the top layer of peat had recently been milled over a large area.
‘Cease and desist’ order from EPA
The EPA told our investigative team that its investigation in 2020 and 2021 “confirmed that [Klasmann-Deilmann Ireland] or its agents continued to carry out peat extraction” without an EPA licence as required under national law.
As a result, the EPA issued a warning letter on 3 June 2021 instructing Klasmann-Deilmann Ireland – including agents or third parties – to “immediately cease and desist all peat extraction activities” in areas specified in the warning letter.
In the letter, the EPA said that, despite informing the company on 22 October 2020 that it was in breach of the EPA Act, “the Agency believes that KDIL [Klasmann-Deilmann Ireland Ltd] has continued its extraction activities on some or all of the aforementioned areas….. and has, it appears, even escalated the intensity of these activities in recent times”.
“KDIL ought to be fully aware that the activities it is carrying out require to be the subject of an [Environmental Impact Assessment] under EU law. Further, at least an Appropriate Assessment screening would be required [under the Habitats Directive] for the said activities,” the EPA continued.
“In the absence of such assessments, the Agency is of the view that KDIL is committing a serious and ongoing breach of EU environmental law,” the warning letter stated.
On 20 July 2021, the company signed a “Terms of Undertaking” with the EPA, a copy of which was released to our team, to cease milling, harrowing or excavation of peat on the investigated peatlands, as well as lands below 50 hectares owned or operated by the company.
On 17 February 2022, the EPA told Noteworthy that it will “continue to monitor the peatlands in question to determine if the undertaking is being honoured”, and that it “will immediately initiate legal proceedings” if Klasmann-Deilmann Ireland fails to adhere to the agreement.
At the end of May, the EPA confirmed to our team that it had carried out five further inspections of the company’s bogs in 2022 and “recently became aware of some activity on one of the bogs” subject to previous inspections. The agency said it is currently investigating but “cannot comment further on the matter at this time”.
We sent a series of detailed questions to Klasmann-Deilmann and Klasmann-Deilmann Ireland in relation to the EPA’s enforcement action. It did not respond to the questions raised. We previously contacted Klasmann-Deilmann in February with questions on the EPA’s findings up to that point. In a statement on 15 February, it said our queries relate to “sensitive corporate data and details” and it was “not in the position to respond to it in more detail”.
Other peat operators in EPA’s crosshairs
The EPA also confirmed that it is investigating the activities of 11 other operators where it believes that licensable activities – extraction of peat in the course of business in an area exceeding 50 hectares – may be taking place.
The Agency stated in its 2021 annual enforcement report that it carried out 48 inspections as it “focused its enforcement efforts” on tackling unauthorised extraction.
It confirmed to our team that it has carried out close to 30 inspections so far in 2022 on bogs operated by companies other than Harte Peat and Klasmann-Deilmann where it suspects that the operators are carrying out a licensable activity.
It said that it has instructed these other operators to cease their activities and that “the EPA will take further enforcement action if they do not undertake to cease”.
We asked for copies of all reports from site inspections on bogs operated by companies other than Harte Peat and Klasmann-Deilmann. The agency refused to release records or confirm the names of other extractors, stating that the operators “are subject to ongoing enforcement actions and the release of any records at this stage could prejudice further legal action”.
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This article was written by Niall Sargent of Noteworthy. It was proposed and funded by you, our readers. This article was developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu as part of a cross-border project with TVNET in Latvia.
Noteworthy is the investigative journalism platform from The Journal. You can support our work by helping to fund one of our other investigation proposals or submitting an idea for a story. Click here to find out more >>
We also have a number of climate and biodiversity-themed investigation proposals which you can view here.
Where was the lad from Mandela’s funeral???
Interesting given that they couldn’t get someone given that there were two people signing for the crowd at Croke Park.
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: but if you read the article you’ll notice is a specialist skill to sign for broadcast, that maybe different to what the guys in croke park itself are doing. I don’t sign so I’m unsure
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: they were signer on the pitch. It’s just rte are being rte.
@Vocal Outrage: They’re qualified interpreters. RTÉ are full of lies and bull. It’s not so difficult to do these things. If one of the workers there or owners has a deaf child, it would all be different and all equal! Guaranteed!!!
@Vocal Outrage: I am a part of the team who performed at Croke Park yesterday. I would like to make a clarification in light of the statements that have been issued by RTÉ and the confusion here. Between us, Senan and I have a combined experience of over 40 years of Irish Sign Language provision for broadcasting.
RTÉ chose a criterion of only allowing a performance of the ISL version of the National Anthem in its entirety if it were recorded in-studio and broadcast on a separate channel in spite of repeated requests by members of the Deaf community to cover the actual performance and also that it be covered on the main match coverage. It would appear that RTÉ applied the rule that virtually no access to the ISL version of the National Anthem was preferable to a live on-site performance. What is particularly unusual is that RTÉ do not appear to apply the same standards to the audio performances, for example, it was not necessary to have a studio performance by a band to replace the on-site performance by the Artane band.
The particularly upsetting thing about this is that the official ISL version of the National Anthem was developed based upon a version first performed by Senan and myself. It was refined through consultation with the Deaf community in an attempt to make Deaf people less isolated and marginalised as so well described to the Seanad by a young Deaf man when he was a student at Bishopstown Community School [I won't mention his name on this page, but his mother has commented below :) ] And now this version of the National Anthem developed with inclusion in mind is being used to exclude. These are the types of actions that have lead to the development of the Stop Hiding Irish Sign Language (#StopHidingISL) campaign.
The GAA, to their credit, have ensured that the performance is visible using picture-in-picture on the screen within Croke Park which is exactly what the Deaf community were hoping for all along.
Don’t they have multiple sign language people on the payroll for nucht couldn’t they use one of them?
They had two excellent ISL interpreters on the pitch…what are they on about!! The problem is the interpreters need to be SEEN by the members of the deaf community..it is absolutely no use for the camera just to scan over the interpreters as they do with the players and spectators. The interpreters need to be in a separate “bubble” on the screen and be visible at all times to the deaf person. Maybe RTE couldn’t get the interpreters into the studio in time to do this? If that’s the case then this article is very misleading!
@DeeM: saw it on Gaago
@DeeM: Thank you. It seems that RTÉ would only allow the performance in full if it were a studio performance, which seems strange given that it was live coverage of a sporting event.
Maybe if they’d started sourcing a broadcast signer sooner than a few days before broadcast they might have had better luck, this just suggests that RTÉ couldn’t give a fck about the deaf community.
I see there was some confusion in the comments section. Irish Deaf Society had just sent a statement with RTÉ ISL Signing team. Please see the statement – https://www.facebook.com/IrishDeafSociety/videos/1927746564192545/
Am I reading this right? The IDC are outraged that ISL is not provided for a song they cannot hear and which is a preliminary to the main event , but are happy to watch a match without hearing the commentary of the action that is actually taking place. Is this right? Please, please someone tell me I have this wrong. Thank you.
@Marc Bryan funnily enough you don’t need commentary to enjoy a match!
@Antaine Ó Cáthain: Sure, I get that. A match is visual, but why do IDS require a commentary for a preliminary event which is auditory? I really just don’t get that.
@Marc Bryan: the official Irish Sign Language version of the national anthem was only recently established. To have it signed in full at an event of national significance is huge! The Deaf community at home deserves access on the main screen, not on a secondary channel (which is what RTÉ had offered). A small bubble in the corner of the main screen featuring the interpreter signing live from the event would have been neither costly nor technologically complex. No interpreter made themself available for RTÉ’s proposed alternative, because we do not wish to be complicit in the kind of retrogressive ‘separate but equal’ policy RTÉ seemingly deems adequate.
@Marc Bryan: good question. Music doesnt have to be heard through their ears. You can hear, see or feel music. Did you know Beethoven was deaf and so was dj Pete tong. They b0th can feel vibrations. Deaf can either feel it or see interpreter doing signing and body movement like jumping would meant techno or whatever and if you’re moving slowly it could mean a slow song or what have you. Also Deaf can hear a bit but needed a bit of help from interpreter with words as couldn’t follow words properly just like some would like read lyrics on their phone or anything.
Pay them 500 thousand and no problem getting them
My son is the young deaf student who wrote to the senate in December asking for an ISL version of The National Anthem, this stemmed from a visit by the Lord Mayor, where the hearing students sang but sadly for my son and his deaf peers there was no version for them they are as patriotic as anyone else about their country they felt excluded, yes there are teething problems like everything new, usual signers in RTE probably don’t know the signs for the words, there needs to be better communication between RTE and the deaf community,
I saw a man signing the National Anthem!
Could they not pre record in studio and play back anytime it’s needed?
Irish Sign Language (ISL) was endorsed as one of Ireland’s national languages through the passing of the ISL Act last December. Whether subtitles, interpreters on another channel “do the job” – as a society that has always we have been known for our inclusive nature. We should, but particularly the national broadcaster should, celebrate and be proud to showcase A Deaf presenter signing an officially translated ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’ at key events. It doesn’t cost or inconvenience anyone. It just requires some additional planning and having an attitude of being proud of something that affects and benefits many people in Irish society. ISL is a beautiful visual language and Deaf culture is rich in its history. We should celebrate that which brings our society together – not pull it apart.
RTE, all signtalk and no action.
Subtitles?
@Rear Admiral: ISL is it’s own unique language. It isn’t a written language so subtitles won’t work
@Sandra: why does one need to sign a “fixed” text/lyrics when subtitles will do?
@Sandra: If it’s a written language, why not put it up on the big screen
@Oracle Steve: it’s not a written language, it’s visual. It wouldn’t have killed RTE to do a little bubble on screen or a split screen in order to show the anthem as agreed. It seems the main problem may be that none of the signers on RTEs books were suitably qualified to sign the anthem as signing to music is different to speech. Perhaps an agreement shouldn’t have been reached without first checking the outcome was possible.
@Sandra: RTÉ’s proposed solution, to broadcast a different interpreter signing the anthem on a separate channel, was discriminatory. Interpreters did not make themselves available because we do not want to be complicit in discrimination against Ireland’s Deaf community. As you say, a bubble in the corner wouldn’t have killed them!
@Sandra: As a part of the team who performed yesterday in Croke Park, I would like to clarify that Senan is indeed a presenter with RTÉ and was present on the pitch. RTÉ chose not to allow for the on pitch performance of the ISL version of the National Anthem not to be broadcast because it was not being filmed under studio conditions. In contrast, RTÉ did not require a studio band to dub over the performance of the National Anthem by the Artane Band.
@Darren Byrne: *RTÉ chose not to allow for the on-pitch performance of the ISL version of the National Anthem to be broadcast because it was not being filmed under studio conditions.* double negative…
You understand that a match is visual and doesnt require commentary to be enjoyed and understood. Great.
And you understand the anthem is auditory, and not visual. I’m going to take a leap of faith and say you understand the deaf community struggle with auditory and not visual. You arent deaf but you saying you don’t understand why the IDS require a commentary for an auditory makes you out to be dummy.
The camera panning around the crowd, maybe its at least nice if a deaf person may know what is being sung? Btw, thats a rhetorical question.
Imagine if the TV channels was full of ISL without any English spoken for hearing people to hear, but we ‘wouldn’t’ let that happen, we’d think it’d be too difficult and complicated to do that. How would you all feel?
My son is the young deaf student who wrote to the senate in December asking for an ISL version of The National Anthem, this stemmed from a visit by the Lord Mayor to his school where the hearing students sang the National Anthem but sadly for my son and his deaf peers there was no version for them , they are as patriotic as anyone else about their country they felt excluded, yes there are teething problems like everything new, usual signers in RTE probably don’t know the signs for the words, there needs to be better communication between RTE and the deaf community,
but l do believe ISL will have its rightful place, at all public events and deaf people will no longer feel excluded.
What
Any reason they can’t read the anthem of the giant screens at the game?
@Oracle Steve: Richness of life experience
@Oracle Steve: a 2006 survey found that;
The Irish Deaf Education System produced over 70% of school leavers to have ‘little to no confidence’ in reading a newspaper.
The Irish Deaf Education System produced nearly 80% of school leavers to have ‘little to no confidence’ in writing a basic letter or even to use email.
The Irish Deaf Education System produced over 80% of school leavers to have ‘little to no confidence’ in filling out an official form
@Oracle Steve: Just to clarify – the GAA showed the Irish Sign Language version of the National Anthem on screen alongside the lyrics that can be sung by the hearing spectators and well done to them on that. The focus of this article is RTÉ choosing not to show it in full.
In addition to any potential literacy issues as mentioned by others, a great many Deaf adults in Ireland have never been taught Irish due to decisions around the education of Deaf children, so the fact that ISL is a separate and independent language from Irish and English, and that Irish and English cannot be assumed to be accessible are the reasons.
My son is the young deaf student who wrote to the senate in December asking for an ISL version of The National Anthem, this stemmed from a visit by the Lord Mayor, where the hearing students sang but sadly for my son and his deaf peers there was no version for them they are as patriotic as anyone else about their they felt excluded, yes there are teething problems like everything new, usual signers in RTE probably don’t know the signs for the words, there needs to be better communication between RTE and the deaf community
My son is the young deaf student who wrote to the senate in December asking for an ISL version of The National Anthem, this stemmed from a visit by the Lord Mayor to his school where the hearing students sang the National Anthem but sadly for my son and his deaf peers there was no version for them , they are as patriotic as anyone else about their country they felt excluded, yes there are teething problems like everything new, usual signers in RTE probably don’t know the signs for the words, there needs to be better communication between RTE and the deaf community,
but l do believe ISL will have its rightful place, at all public events and deaf people will no longer feel excluded. Ireland is an inclusive society.
My son is the young deaf student who wrote to the senate in December asking for an ISL version of The National Anthem, this stemmed from a visit by the Lord Mayor to his school where the hearing students sang the National Anthem but sadly for my son and his deaf peers there was no version for them , they are as patriotic as anyone else about their country they felt excluded, yes there are teething problems like everything new, usual signers in RTE probably don’t know the signs for the words, there needs to be better communication between RTE and the deaf community,
but l do believe ISL will have its rightful place, at all public events and deaf people will no longer feel excluded
My son is the young deaf student who wrote to the senate in December asking for an ISL version of The National Anthem, this stemmed from a visit by the Lord Mayor, where the hearing students sang but sadly for my son and his deaf peers there was no version for them they are as patriotic as anyone else about their country they felt excluded, yes there are teething problems like everything new, usual signers in RTE probably don’t know the signs for the words, there needs to be better communication between RTE and the deaf community
Signing for the National Anthem??? Or for the match?? Why would you need either??
@Rob Cahill: National Anthem at All Ireland final. It is not about needs. It is about our right to access to national anthem in full like all others that RTE failed to provide
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