Campaigners call on State 'to move away from crackling fire' and ban smoky coal nationwide
Professor Sodeau, founding director of the Centre of Research into Atmospheric Chemistry, said Irish people need to move away from the “crackling fire”.
Senator Timmy Dooley says the government should ban smoky coal nationwide and let companies selling the coal sue the State.
The Fianna Fáil politician also says the government needs to stop “pandering” to “vested interests”.
The UCC’s Professor Emeritus John Sodeau, one of the country’s leading scientists and an An Taisce Climate Ambassador, has also said Ireland must end its love of “crackling fires”. The Asthma Society has also called on the State to “prioritise public health over commercial concerns”.
The comments follow Irish Heart Foundation CEO Tim Collins' recent call for the government to “get on with it” and bring in the ban. He said if the country can’t implement such a ban in the middle of a worldwide climate emergency, “what hope do we have?”.
He was speaking after it emerged the soonest availability of draft legislation needed to make the ban work will be “towards the end of the year”.
This means the ban that health campaigners like Dr Collins, the Clean Air Alliance, and the Asthma Society of Ireland had expected this year will now not happen until next year at the earliest.
The burning of smoky coal is banned in specific low smoke zones (LSZs) in cities and all towns with populations of more than 10,000 people. It is estimated air pollution causes 1,410 premature deaths annually in Ireland and some 1,300 are believed to be caused by emissions of fine particulate matter from burning solid fuels.
The first partial ban was brought in about 30 years ago and health campaigners have been fighting for a nationwide ban ever since.
Senator Dooley said: “It's shocking the department is not moving more quickly to address this issue.
“I have taken the view that the best way forward is to enact the legislation. And if those interested parties who are importing or bringing in smoky coal believe they have a case to take, let them take on the Irish government in the courts.
“But we should not be pandering to these vested interests."
In February last year, Environment Minister Eamon Ryan said a nationwide ban on smoky fuels would be a condition of going into government. He told the Irish Mail on Sunday: “The last government pulled back from introducing a ban under legal threat from coal importers.
“I think the way around that is to follow the example in the UK where they are introducing a gradual ban from 2021 until 2023.”
Professor Sodeau, founding director of the Centre of Research into Atmospheric Chemistry, said Irish people need to move away from the “crackling fire”.
“We’ve been in a holding pattern regarding the nationwide banning of smoky coal sales and burning since Phil Hogan first suggested such a Clean Air measure when Minister of the Environment in 2013,” he said.
“The idea has moved like a hot potato from successor to successor until we get to today when there is yet another promise that the ban will happen soon.”
He says one of the main reasons for “long-term political reluctance to act” is the strong lobby group that protects the commercial interests of the coal industry in Ireland. Another is, he says, “the wobbles of any Irish Government of the day”.
And he added: “Governments have the duty to protect their citizens."
“Certainly since 2013 scientists and medics have known of the harmful effects on our health that small particulates released from burning solid fuel bring to the living room.
“We all should lobby our representatives and tell them: No more.
“It means that some long-standing habits like the crackling fire in the corner and burning coal and wood even when central heating is available will have to cease.
“So to get a nationwide ban, in my opinion, we need people power to replace coal power.”
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