A Fianna Fáil TD is calling on the Government to make the smoky coal ban nationwide as it makes no sense to have such an “ad hoc and arbitrary manner”.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is calling for a country-wide ban on smoky coal despite the threat of legal action by the coal industry.

The controversial Colombian mining company that routes billions of euro worth of business through Ireland has said it is "horrified" by death threats against a human rights activist who was in this country last month speaking out against the mine.

Colombian Jakeline Romero is in Ireland to highlight the harm wrought by a 690 sq km mine, which distributes its coal through a Dublin-based firm, writes Caroline O’Doherty.

The world’s fourth-largest economy has set 2038 as the deadline for reaching zero coal, not a moment too soon, say Johan Rockström and Owen Gaffney.

Ireland is complicit in human rights breaches in Colombia by buying coal from a mine accused of multiple abuses of local communities, campaigners say.

Latest: Ireland will become the first EU country to completely ban smoky coal next year.

A leading figure in Irish horseracing, Annemarie O’Brien, has backed a report on converting Ireland’s largest electricity station from coal to biomass.

The seaborne coal market is heading into 2016 with the biggest glut in at least four years.

Smoky coal is to be banned in towns across the country within three years.