Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar has said that the proposed ban on the sale – and gifting – of turf will now not go ahead as planned in September.
Minister Varadkar told a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party this evening (Wednesday, April 13) that the ban has been turfed out after a number of the party’s TDs and senators levelled heavy criticism at the move.
Those who spoke out against the ban at this evening’s meeting included TDs Brendan Griffin (Kerry) and Ciarán Cannon (Galway East), and senator Tim Lombard.
Agriland understands that the Tánaiste expressed general agreement with the criticism expressed, and in fact acknowledged that the level of consultation involved in the decision to implement the ban was insufficient.
When several TDs and senators at the meeting noted the importance of the sale of turf – including in a cultural sense – in rural areas, Minister Varadkar agreed and is understood to have said the move was “like taking wine from the French”.
For those reasons, the government had decided to “press pause” on the move, he told his party colleagues.
It does not appear that the Tánaiste gave any particular timeline as to when such a ban might happen, if it is to happen at all.
It emerged on Monday of this week that Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan was proposing to ban the sale and “distribution” of turf from September.
Since then, the plan has received near universal criticism from farming and rural organisations, as well as public representatives from most political parties.
Earlier today, Fianna Fáil TD for Tipperary and chairperson of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine Jackie Cahill said Minister Ryan’s proposal “could not come at a more inappropriate time”.
“There are many people in rural Ireland who are really feeling the effects of the rising cost of living, particularly the cost of heating their homes and running their cars… I cannot think of a worse time to impose a ban on the sale of turf than right now,” deputy Cahill argued.