Turf cash not being paid out by Dept.

SEVERAL hundred bog owners who joined the Turf Cutting Cessation Scheme are still waiting for their 2019 payments which are now running about two to three months behind schedule, according to Independent Galway-Roscommon TD, Michael Fitzmaurice.

He said that the slowdown in the payments to approximately 1,500 bog owners in the Galway-Roscommon region was the continuation of a trend across all Government departments so far this year.

“The obvious blackhole is the National Children’s Hospital which everyone knows has over-ran its budget by some distance.

“The same trend is recurring with the HSE being unable to fulfil vacancies and also with a reduction in CLÁR payments, as compared to last year in Galway and Roscommon. [many for small improvements to school grounds].

“Unfortunately, the bottom line in all of this is, that it’s rural Ireland that’s taking the hit for a deliberate slow-down and delaying of making payments that are long overdue,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice.

He added that as regards the Turf Cessation payments, people had entered into this agreement in good faith and in the early years of the scheme [it lasts for 15 years], the money was paid out in the early Summer period.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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