TDs snub Sinn Féin motion to abolish ban on turf cutting
A SINN FÉIN motion to scrap the turf ban failed to sway Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbenchers in a Dáil vote last night.
Despite warnings to Green Party leader Eamon Ryan from both parties that the stability of the Government was at risk, the coalition suffered no casualties amid hopes of reaching a compromise.
The Irish Daily Mail understands that during a meeting with Minister Ryan on Tuesday, Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin reminded the Green Party leader that he is Deputy Government Chief Whip.
He said the majority of his party does not support the regulations and Minister Ryan was ‘jeopardising the stability of the Government’. Despite this, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs who spoke to the Mail yesterday vowed to back the coalition in last night’s vote. There was also consensus across all three coalition parties that this does not have to topple the Government.
One Fine Gael source said that the Sinn Féin motion was ‘bad timing’ as a resolution process is under way.
‘These motions are deliberately designed so that the Government can’t accept or support them so Sinn Féin TDs can take a picture of the scoreboard and tweet it,’ the source commented.
Asked if they were prepared to lose the whip if Minister Ryan’s solution was not satisfactory, one Fianna Fáil TD said it ‘won’t come to that.’
‘No government will bring legislation to the floor of the House that doesn’t have the support of its own parties,’ they said. Cathal Crowe, Fianna Fáil TD for Clare, told the Mail that he was ‘happy’ with the wording of the Government’s counter-motion.
It stated that the coalition recognises peat turfing is a traditional activity, but ‘measures are required to reduce the emissions associated’.
It also vowed that the regulations would be completed in the coming weeks and would ‘not impinge upon traditional local practices associated with sod peat, including localised rural trading and the sharing of turf with family members and neighbours’.
‘I told Eamon Ryan I couldn’t support his proposals during our meeting,’ Mr Crowe said.
‘It was poorly timed, meanspirited and anti-rural. The counter-motion protects turf cutting and burning.’
Sources at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary meeting told the Mail that Taoiseach Micheál Martin thanked his backbenchers for their work on the turf issue and their ‘constructive and positive approach’. Mr Martin insisted that people’s current rights ‘need to be protected’.
The Taoiseach raised eyebrows yesterday in the Dáil when he said that there will be no ban on turf ‘for the remainder of the year’. ‘There is no ban on the use of turf in rural Ireland,’ he told Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. ‘There will be no ban for the remainder of the year.’
However, a number of senior Government sources downplayed the Taoiseach’s comments, saying there have been no changes to the proposal and that it is still scheduled to come in from September 1.
They suggested that Mr Martin was referencing the fact that most people stock up on turf during the summer and so the ban will have little effect this winter. This, they argued, was in line with comments that they made on Tuesday saying that the proposed new regulations ‘will have no impact this winter’.
One Green Party minister said they were confident that a compromise could be found between traditional practices and regulating the use of peat to protect people’s health.
‘Couldn’t support his proposals’