Plan to ban turf sales deferred until next year

Plans to implement a ban on the sale of turf on September 1 appear now to be paused after the Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil on Wednesday night that there would be no ban for the remainder of the year.

His commitment came as a Sinn Féin Dáil motion to scrap the plan to ban turf sales, cancel a pending carbon tax increase and to temporarily remove excise duty on home heating oil was defeated.

Laois/Offaly TD Barry Cowen defended his decision to vote against the Sinn Féin Dáil motion on Wednesday.

He said that despite Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan “going back to the drawing board” on his proposals, the Sinn Féin motion would have meant the loss of €202m from retrofitting funding this year alone and €160m from just transition funds for the Midlands.

A Government amendment which referred to a regulatory provision to prohibit the sale of sod peat in larger areas while allowing the traditional sale in rural areas was carried instead.

The Government amendment also indicated that final regulations would be agreed in the coming weeks which, it said, would ensure that “while measures are introduced to enhance air quality, they will not impinge upon traditional local practices associated with sod peat”. The practices cited were “localised rural trading and the sharing of turf with family members and neighbours”.

During the week, the controversy over the proposed turf sale ban had shown no sign of abating despite indications that Minister was conceding ground on the issue.

The Minister appeared to flag that he was would exempt sharing or gifting of turf between families and neighbours and that the sale of turf in rural areas with a population of under 500 could continue.

The attempted compromise did not satisfy many backbench rural Tds

Deputy Cowen also said this did not deal with those who did not have turbary rights and depended on commercial cutters in their own community whom they buy turf from every year.

He said it also failed to take into account that the issue of the high capital cost of retrofitting was only beginning to be addressed.

Earlier in the week, Green Party Laois/Offaly Senator and Minister of State Pippa Hackett hit out at what she described as “scaremongering and misinformation” across the Midlands on the issue of the sale of turf

However, she stressed that she was not in favour of a ban on small scale gifting of turf.

“I have asked Minister Eamon Ryan to clarify the situation re the distribution of small amounts of turf to family members and neighbours, where there are turbary rights. I am in favour of a ban on commercial scale extraction and sale of turf as this contributes to air pollution in the more urban areas.

“I know that many households in the Midlands, and most of all Offaly, rely on turf from these providers and I have asked Minister Ryan and my Government colleagues to consider solutions to this in advance of the coming winter.

She said the Clean Air Strategy is a public health measure, necessary to address ill health and death associated with poor air quality, which she described as “indisputable”.

She said she agreed with an approach to include allowances for small scale distribution to family and neighbours in rural areas.

Meanwhile, The Asthma Society of Ireland today calls on all government and opposition parties to support Minister Eamon Ryan’s proposed Solid Fuel Regulations in a bid to end preventable deaths caused by air pollution. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, fine particle emissions from the burning of solid fuels is estimated to cause 1,300 premature deaths every year in Ireland.

Introducing these regulations banning smoky coal and wet wood, and prohibiting the commercial sale of sod turf, will save lives, it said.

Eilís Ní Chaithnía, Advocacy and Research Manager and Deputy CEO of the Asthma Society of Ireland, said: “We are keenly aware that the growing number of people at risk of fuel poverty will be affected by the proposed Solid Fuel Regulations, but we also know they are also more likely to be seriously impacted by the indoor air quality in their own homes, which is worsened by burning solid fuels.

“We are calling for a just transition that sees the fuel allowance increased over the next 24 months and additional investment in accelerate rollout of the National Retrofitting Programme, with additional subsidies for those most at risk of fuel poverty, lower-income households and the medically vulnerable.”

“We are also cognisant of the desire in rural communities to protect traditional cultures and note that the Minister has provided in the regulations for continued turf extraction by those with turbary rights and distribution within small communities.”