Mr. Chris Macey:

The vast majority of deaths every year in Ireland, estimated at about 1,300, are down to the burning of fuels in homes generally. I think something like 80% of the deaths are down to that rather than being down to traffic pollution, for example. If someone has a wood stove, a lot of the emissions go out of the chimney and affect other people, but a lot of them stay in the house as well, so it is having a material impact on people who are in the house where the wood, wet or otherwise, is being burned, on those in the houses around that and on the general environment. When there are many houses together, it is very different to an isolated farmhouse. The impact it is having is huge and it is not just in the cities as there are towns that are bearing a big brunt of this as well.

It is a problem and an issue that we have to do something about. We need to help people who have used this form of fuel and who might have struggled with energy poverty. It is not just a case of stopping people doing something and not giving them an alternative. Energy poverty costs lives as well and there has to be an even-handed approach.