Independent TD for Laois Offaly, Carol Nolan has said there needs to be absolute clarity on the status of the proposed ban on the sale, marketing, and distribution of sod turf.
Deputy Nolan was speaking after Tánaiste Leo Varadkar indicated that a ‘pause’ had been placed on the ban which was due to come into effect in September.
However, this position appears to have been directly contradicted by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, who said the prohibitions were still on course and that no decision had been made to pause or reconsider the ban.
“The people of rural Ireland who are deeply opposed to this ban deserve better than to have the issue subjected to petty squabbling among government parties,” deputy Nolan said.
“They deserve a clear and decisive rejection, not in a few weeks, not after a ‘pause’, but today.”
“It is simply disgraceful that government would first instil fear and concern, particularly into the many elderly people who utilise turf for home heating, but to then go on and compound this position with political ambivalence – that is just not acceptable.
“We cannot have the Lanigan’s Ball approach of one step in and one step out,” the TD added.
Turf sale ban
The independent TD said that the proposal to ban the sale, marketing, and distribution of turf was never going to be accepted in counties like Offaly and beyond.
She has stressed that such a measure would “turn neighbour against neighbour”.
“Thanks to the almighty backlash that has risen up in rural Ireland and beyond, political backbenchers have finally woken up from their slumber regarding the impact of green policies on ordinary people in their communities,” Nolan said.
Other public representatives and rural organisations have also come out against such a proposed ban.
The ban “could not come at a more inappropriate time”, according to the Fianna Fáil TD for Tipperary, Jackie Cahill, while Irish Rural Link said that it is “heightening fear among rural households, especially older people and those on low income who continue to rely on turf to heat their homes, and for some the only form of heat source”.