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

There are a few things that were said by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and, indeed, by the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, that need to be corrected. They spoke about sod peat not being valuable for heat. In case the Minister of State does not know - he might not come from a turf or bog area - the fact is that approximately €600 heats one's house for the year. There is no way one can do that with oil or anything else. Turf is what people are able to use to heat their homes. That needs clarification.

All the talk about a legal challenge is a red herring, to be frank, because what the coal people will do is go to non-smoky coal. They can bring that in, no problem. This idea is being thrown out everywhere but the dog on the street knows what is really happening. Reference was made to a problem in Ennis. I heard about that problem when it was happening. Does the Minister of State know what happened? There were lorryloads of coal going to one part of the country and they ended up in Ennis. The Minister of State's own Department knows that. It is no big secret. That is what happened with the smoky coal and the air pollution in Ennis. We have to be upfront about it.

As regards sod peat - we call it turf - this thing was brought out about wet peat. People do not burn wet turf. It will not burn, to put it simply. It creates smoke but that is all one gets. The Minister of State spoke about smoky fuels. To get good quality turf, a person turns and foots it, brings it home and puts it in a shed to let it season. To be frank, if the Minister of State knew anything about turf, he would know that there is no smoke from burning good quality turf that has been dried properly. That is a fact. Let no one say there is smoke from it. There is no smoke from it. If turf is not dried, then, just like with timber or any other product, there is smoke from it.

It is basically about having a bit of common sense.

The point has been thrown out about European agencies and about the number of people who are supposed to die in each country, allegedly, as a consequence of burning certain fuels. Reference was made earlier to open fireplaces. It is only the lofty people who can afford open fireplaces. The ordinary people of rural Ireland have stoves and ranges and that is what some of them use to cook the dinner, as well as heating their houses with the back boiler. A total of 97% to 98% of households that use turf have either a stove or range. There is misinformation being put out about this. We have had talk about the danger of air pollution. The people who use turf have been using the same amount for the past 20 years.

When we talk about air pollution, we need to talk about the diesel used by aeroplanes and at places like Dublin Port. As Deputy Verona Murphy said, 14 million litres of diesel were used because a barrier does not go up. We need to talk about smoky coal and diesel cars. It is not a case of one size fits all. If we drill down into the details, we can look at the percentage of people who burn turf and the percentage who burn it in urban areas. If we are to go about quantifying lives lost, I would say the number would be three or four at most. Again, we are not looking at the big fish. Are we going to say smoking is good for you and people can smoke in our faces and we are not overly bothered about it? Red herring stuff is being thrown about, which I do not like to see in any debate.

We need to debate the topic properly and we need to make sure fuels are properly dried. I agree with that, and I am the first to say it. There is an opportunity for the Government in introducing regulations. As I said earlier, the moisture level of peat briquettes is down by 15% or 16%. A peat briquette and a sod of turf are made out of the same product. It is as simple as that. One is pressed and the other is dried naturally. There is no reason we cannot ensure that they are comparable in terms of moisture levels. I have said time and again that the Government does not need to use a sledgehammer to crack the nut. All it has to do is the same as it has done with the regulations for timber and peat briquettes, which is to introduce a requirement to reduce moisture levels to 25% or less. There is an opportunity when the regulations are coming in to ensure any products included in the distribution to large urban areas are brought under that requirement to ensure they are safe.

Let us not be mixing up different issues. I talk to coal merchants all the time and they say they can bring in the other type of coal once they move away from smoky coal. There is a solution for them. There is no big court case looming. Instead of using a sledgehammer to crack the nut, there must be an opportunity for everybody instead of taking people's livelihood away from them.

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