The International Peat Society conference has officially opened in Tullamore today, Monday 07 June.

The event, which is being held at the Tullamore Court Hotel, provides an open platform for engagement and discussion on all matters relating to peatlands. It will run until Friday 11 June.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan TD, said: "By the time Ireland achieved its independence, the midlands was one of the most under-developed regions in the country and prospects for development seemed particularly unpromising.

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"However the region had a resource which you can see all around you no matter where you look. I refer of course to the great peat bogs of the midlands.

"Peat and peatlands are hugely important for all sorts of reasons – as ecosystem, as habitat and as resource. Our peatlands are also a source of artistic inspiration. Our bogs have touched Irish imagination and sentiment; they influenced our literature, coloured our poetry and called across the seas to our emigrants.

"Ireland is committed to playing its part in safeguarding Europe’s fragile natural resources and addressing the major environmental challenges faced by mankind.

"Where domestic turf cutters are exercising traditional rights in designated areas, we have established a scheme of compensation to encourage cessation of cutting. There is also a relocation project designed to find new sites for private turf cutters who have relocated from designated bogs."

(CD/JP)