Doubts that smoky coal ban can be enforced

The extended smokeless coal zone around Cork City will be virtually impossible to enforce, critics have said.

New regulations have been introduced which extend the ban beyond the city’s boundary into areas such as Blarney, Tower, Ballincollig, Little Island, and Glanmire, as well as Monkstown, Passage West, and Carrigaline.

The ban on the marketing, sale, and distribution of bituminous fuel (or ‘smoky coal ban’) was first introduced in Dublin in 1990 in response to severe episodes of winter smog that resulted from the widespread use of smoky coal for residential heating.