Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. I thank Deputy Kerrane and Sinn Féin for bringing it forward.

One issue that must be recognised, as mentioned by Deputy Martin Kenny, is that in the case of many social housing developments, including, for example, in Tuam and in different parts of counties Galway and Roscommon, ranges and stoves are installed and people are getting €1,300 per year to heat those homes. The councils are not going to have the heating systems in all those properties changed by next September. Many of the people living in them buy either a plot of turf or a few trailer-loads of turf from someone.

It is necessary, first, to understand turf. I will not deny I am a bogman. I was on the bog this morning, where I met and talked to a few people. There is an attitude that the way this is being handled is like a bully in the schoolyard taking it out on the small children. People feel they are being targeted while, at the same time, 7,000 tonnes of coal are being burned in Moneypoint to keep the lights on. I am not saying that does not need be done. I know we are under pressure. Six artic loads of diesel or oil are being used to keep the generators going but we are talking about people burning a bit of turf. A transition is needed and we must resolve this issue. Nearly every Fianna Gael and Fianna Fáil Deputy from around the country has taken part in radio station discussions and agreed with Opposition Deputies that this cannot happen. However, when a vote is called or whatever, they still will run into this House and do the same thing.

We need to resolve this issue. During the Covid pandemic, we were told to use one bottle and then another bottle to clean our hands. Let us say we have a peat briquette in one hand and a sod of turf in the other. What is the difference? The Government has said a peat briquette is okay. Ministers will say that people in UCD and other places have done tests on this, but I have done my own tests. If something is allowed to season, its moisture content is brought down. I backed the proposal by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on reducing the moisture content to below 25%. I understand he is leaving it at that. He needs to work with the industry over the next few years to resolve this issue. On top of that, clarification needs to come rapidly. What happened, however, was we had a one-line statement on turbary rights and, hey presto, that was that.

There are ten different ways in which people can own a bog. There are fee simple rights, for instance, and acquired rights. What about the people who historically took a plot of wet turf and used it, whether they lived in a town of more than 500 people, in a city or wherever? There are people with turbary rights who live in cities. The understanding of this issue is complex. I have fought many a day with the people in the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, but, in fairness to them, they have a fair knowledge of what went on and the different types of ownership in bogs. Lisnageeragh Bog covers 3,000 acres on one side of the road, which the people in the NPWS worked to preserve. On the other side of the road are 100 acres, where people cut their bit of turf. What about the people who gave up their bog and were told by the NPWS they would be given turf? By the way, the State pays at the moment to take turf to people's houses. What about the people who were asked to take money and buy turf somewhere? What about those who moved to relocation sites under a licence? Does that amount to a turbary right? No, it does not, but all that was given was a one-line statement on turbary rights.

Since 2020, the price of home heating oil has gone from 43 cent a litre to approximately €1.30 today. The price of gas has gone up by 45% to 50%. People cannot just knock off one light and we cannot tell them they have to stop using turf in September. We need a just transition. In saying this, I am not going against the Government. I am trying to work with it. The Turf Cutters and Contractors Association, TCCA, is willing to work with it. The one thing the Minister must do is come down off the high horse when it comes to the September deadline. What is needed is for him to work with the industry to ensure that in larger urban areas, the moisture content is brought down and the peat briquette is made sound. Whether with timber or peat, the moisture must be brought below the 25% level he requires. That is achievable if it is done in that way. We do not have to complicate it by talking about this town having 100 people, that one having 500 and the one with 50,000 being a no-go area. The Government needs to introduce something whereby, in the case of a population over 5,000 or 10,000, as with timber, there is a requirement that the moisture content be at a certain level.

People seem to think we in rural Ireland are gorms who go out and cut and burn a tree and split the chimney liner to make sure we do harm. That is not done. The wood is seasoned and the same is done with turf. I spoke to a person today who has turf in his shed for two years to let it season. I guarantee the moisture level of that turf is below that of a peat briquette. There needs to be rationality and common sense brought into this discussion. Above all, we need to hear from people who know a bit about it. I have listened to stuff in here tonight that would make you vomit if you come from a bog. I have listened to the BS that came out of some people about mining turf. By the Lord Jesus, we are hearing about mining, above all things. A lot of people are talking about bogs who know nothing about them.

I came from the bog, grew up in it and lived in it. I am proud to be from it. I can tell the Minister now that he needs to sit down and talk to his backbenchers and others. We will work with him but the bottom line is that the machines were out today in every bog in the country cutting turf. He cannot tell people next September that they cannot buy that turf. It is cut and it is done.

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