Hackett says turf burning should be allowed in Offaly villages

THE sale of turf should not be banned in Offaly villages under the controversial fuel regulations, junior minister Pippa Hackett said this morning.

While the details will not be finalised until consultation with the public has concluded, the Geashill-based senator indicated that centres with populations of 500 or less will be excluded from the new rules on smoky fuel sales.

That would mean that households in villages like Clonbullogue, Cloneygowan, Geashill, Rahan or Pullough will still be permitted to buy turf from contractors, as will those living in rural areas.

However, turf burning in the larger towns including Tullamore, Edenderry, Birr, Clara, Ferbane and Banagher will be banned.

“I think that's striking the balance,” the Green Party Minister of State for Land Use said on Tuesday.

“That's trying to come a bit of the way to strike that balance between delivering as much as we can for air quality in the bigger areas while not displacing or taking too many people away from the turf.”

Speaking to the Tullamore Tribune, Minister Hackett added: “I know a lot of people do rely on [turf] and a lot of people wholly rely on it but there's a certain element here that we have to engage with people to show them other opportunities or options of different fuels to burn.

“Turf is cheap but it's not particularly efficient as a fuel. That's why we're not burning it in our power stations. Smokeless coal might be more expensive per bag but I think they get more bang for their buck in terms of heat. And dry timber will burn better than wet timber and briquettes burn better than sod turf.”

Minister Hackett recalled when she was “castigated” and “ridiculed” during the 2020 general election campaign for pointing out the poor quality air in Edenderry which was the result of smoky solid fuel burning.

“Edenderry features quite frequently on the EPA's list of top 10 poor air quality places. Birr is on it, other towns all over the Midlands as well,” she said.

“People just denying there is an issue, it's not right, because people are dying. I'm sure there's a good proportion of people who die are from Offaly and are from towns like Edenderry and Birr.”

She said it is estimated that about 350 lives a year were saved following the ban on the use of smoky coal in Dublin in 1990.

She also pointed out that turf had to be included in restrictive proposals because the coal companies had challenged proposals that their fuel alone could be banned.

Minister Hackett also said successive governments had considered bringing in measures but had failed to do so, beginning in 2015 when Labour's Alan Kelly was Environment Minister.

“It's politicians like Michael Ring, Barry Cowen and Charlie Flanagan who have stopped this happening in the past,” she said.

“We'd have saved thousands of people's lives and we wouldn't be having this discussion any more.”

She hit out at those politicians, local and national, who were facilitating the backlash against the draft proposals.

“What surprised me is people are portraying this as all out of blue and as if they never knew this was coming whereas there was a consultation last year and the current one is open now. I think that's just political opportunism and you frighten people in a sudden way and then you get support.”

The Minister added: “I'm sure the Government will work together, it is a coalition, but we have worked together on other issues and we will on this one.

“We do have to be cognisant of those who are put out and we must do everything we can to facilitate them to move to alternatives but I think we've come a good way to allow people to continue to burn [turf] in certain areas. I think that's fair.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Carol Nolan, the Independent TD in Offaly, has said herself and her Rural Independent Group colleagues in the Dail will call on the Government to provide an explicit commitment that the sale, marketing, and distribution of turf, either at a voluntary or commercial level will be permitted on a permanent basis.

Deputy Nolan was speaking ahead of a Dáil debate on Sinn Fein’s private members motion dealing with the rising cost of home heating fuels.

An amendment tabled by Deputy Nolan also calls on the Government to investigate the possibility of categorising turf cutting and use as a protected cultural practice under such instruments as the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, otherwise known as the Faro Convention.

“There is a very clear awareness on the ground that Sinn Fein, as the main opposition party are trying to have their cake and eat it with respect to its policy on turf cutting and turf use. They keep saying things like the proposed ban is the ‘wrong move at the wrong time,’ and indeed it is. The problem however is that it will always be the wrong time and the wrong move when it comes to banning the sale or use of turf,” Deputy Nolan said.

The former Sinn Fein TD added: “They also talk of the need for government to support people in transitioning away from turf use. But this completely and utterly misses the point. Many families who now use turf do not want to ‘transition’ away from its use. It is their preferred form of heating for both practical and cultural reasons and that is a position that needs permanent protection.”

“There is hardly a hairs breadth in the difference between Minister Ryan and the Green’s position and that of Sinn Fein. The only way in which they diverge is that of timing. Minister Ryan and the Greens would effectively regulate turf use of existence if they could. Sinn Fein just want to do it over a longer period of time. Neither of those positions is acceptable to me or my Rural Independent Group colleagues.”