Irish Examiner View: Proposed turf ban needs an Irish solution to an Irish problem

Broad Government agreement is needed to effect the sort of change the Green Party is pursuing.

A pile of turf extracted from a peat bog in rural Ireland.

There have been many Irish solutions to a variety of Irish problems down the years but, for the current administration, finding an answer to the increasingly divisive issue of exploiting bogs and burning the turf that comes from them is ratcheting up to become a ‘culchie versus townie’ row.

While Climate Minister and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan is insisting this is not the case — that it is a “quality of life” issue and not a burning desire on his party’s behalf to ban all fossil fuels peremptorily — solutions can still be found to the row.