Barry Cowen among dissenting TDs challenging minister Eamon Ryan over proposed turf ban

Fianna Fáil back bencher says Green minister 'has come down the ladder, but he has a good few more rungs to go yet'

Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen. File picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins   22/09/2021 

Eamon Ryan's watering down of a proposed ban on the sale of turf still does not go far enough according to a Fianna Fáil TD.

The Green Party leader has now suggested that small rural communities of under 500 people will be exempt from a ban on the sale of turf, which is due to come into force in September.

Mr Ryan has come under intense pressure from members of both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, as well as opposition parties, over his plans to end the commercial sale of the fuel along with smoky coal and wet wood.

He is now due to meet a number of Fianna Fáil members today, including Barry Cowen, in a bid to ease tensions and hammer out an agreement.

Mr Cowen said of the measures put forward by Mr Ryan: 

He has come down the ladder, but he has a good few more rungs to go yet. 

Mr Cowen said the proposal to allow villages and areas with a population of less than 500 continue to burn turn sods is "senseless" as it won't cater for relationships that exist between the commercial cutter and those families that need a supply that do not have their own resource.

"I could point to 10 or 11 villages and towns in Offaly, for example, that have a population of over 500 where there are pockets of them dependent on turf for their heating, for their water, for their cooking even, so they are a vulnerable cohort that just can't be cut adrift."

He said the number of people burning turf is naturally in decline so there is no need for the proposed intervention.

Small rural communities of under 500 people will furthermore be exempt from the ban on the selling and gifting of the fuel, with the proposals to focus on commercial activities.

Fine Gael members including Clare TD Joe Carey and Galway senator Seán Kyne have also expressed concerns around what might be considered as the sale and distribution of turf under the proposals.