exclusive ‘We’re not going to restrict people selling a small number of bags of turf to neighbours’: Greens retreat in turf wars

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has bowed to pressure from his Coalition colleagues over the turf war.

In an exclusive interview with the Irish Independent, the Environment Minister revealed small rural communities of under 500 people will be exempt from a controversial ban on the selling and gifting of turf.

The move comes following furious backlash from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael rural backbenchers and rising tensions in the Coalition after Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said the ban on the sale of turf, due to come into force in September, was being paused.

Mr Ryan said regulations will be aimed at banning the commercial sale of turf and will only target retail outlets. He added that inspectors will not be sent out to police communities on the sale of turf.

He said there had been major “misinformation or disinformation” about people being raided in their homes and that the State would “arrest your granny for burning the wrong fuel”.

“We’re not going to have a situation where some inspector is going into the cottage and sifting through the grate.”

The regulations will contain a specific exemption for rural communities of fewer than 500 people.

The solution to the ongoing turf war will be spelt out in a Government counter move to a Sinn Féin motion on the turf ban in the Dáil this week.

Mr Ryan will also outline his fresh proposals to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil backbenchers, saying there is now a “consultancy phase” ahead of a ban in September that is primarily aimed at smoky coals.

“If a community is below a certain size, then the regulations won’t apply in that area – typically under 500 people,” Mr Ryan said.

“This is designed to restrict the commercial sale of turf, not to police people down to the lowest level, among neighbours in rural Ireland.

“I think that clarification will overcome a lot of the fears that were expressed in the last few weeks.”

Mr Ryan emphasised that the regulations that have provoked a storm of controversy are still in draft form and have not yet gone to Government for approval.

However, Sinn Féin claimed yesterday that hundreds of deaths in Ireland annually were related to fuel poverty.

TD Matt Carthy said the minister had told people to drive slower and to take shorter showers, but should not be penalising low-income people who were not in a position to switch to cleaner ways of heating their homes.

Mr Ryan said he had been working for the last year and a half on a comprehensive measure to protect public health, “and that is the impetus behind this. 1,300 people are dying prematurely every year from respiratory ailments.

“This has to be done in a way that doesn’t put particular households into real difficulty. It is about clean air. Every time it came to making the decision, governments in the past stepped back, right back to 2015.”

He said the main target was smoky coal, but the Government’s legal advice was that it could not be applied to one fuel alone without a similar approach to other fuels “causing the same problem”.

“That’s why we have this solution for smoky coal, which would apply to wet wood and also peat. That’s the only legal way in which you can address it, according to a series of Attorney Generals. So it’s time to do it.

“What we’ve always said was that we would regulate this at the retail point and with commercial distribution.

“But in rural settings, where people have turbary rights, we’re not going to restrict someone selling a small number of bags of turf to a neighbour, or sharing or gifting to a relative.

“That’s not going to be in the regulations.”

At the same time Mr Ryan said the Government needs to make sure it solves the public health problem in villages and towns by improving air quality.

“A lot of people really want the issue of air quality tackled because it is costing lives. We will get the solution at retail level – but not in rural Ireland, affecting small, isolated rural communities, where people have traditionally relied on cutting turf, which they then shared with neighbours.”

He expects “broad support” within Government for the final proposals.