‘We will get it right’: Ryan conf ident on ban of turf sales

ENVIRONMENT Minister Eamon Ryan has said he is confident the Government will get the new turf regulations right when they are introduced later this year, despite massive opposition from rural TDs and dissent among the Coalition parties.

It comes following weeks of controversy surrounding the proposed ban on largescale sale of turf.

Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae said if the turf regulations are forced through, people will be ‘forcefully’ letting their feelings be known and ‘they will definitely be making their feelings known at the ballot box’.

Mr Healy-Rae said people in his constituency ‘feel as though they are being pushed and pulled and dragged and bullied by the Government’.

He said: ‘They are clearly saying to me they expect nothing better from the Greens, but they will never forgive and never forget Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for what they are doing. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have lost rural Ireland.’

In 2017, the Healy-Rae brothers told the Irish Mail on Sunday there would be mass civil disobedience if plans to limit the burning of turf progressed through the Dáil.

Mr Healy-Rae added: ‘This controversy could have been avoided because what they are talking about is so minimal.’

Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice is set to introduce a motion this week calling on the Government to make exceptions to protect people’s rights to cut and sell turf.

Mr Ryan was in Brussels yesterday to meet with other EU energy ministers as the bloc mulls a possible oil embargo against Russia.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Ryan said there is ‘agreement’ among coalition partners that ‘we need to deliver on the public health benefit’ of reducing air pollution, which he said costs 1,300 lives a year.

‘We’re all agreed that that has to be something we tackle and we don’t ignore.

‘To do that also in a way that protects people from fuel poverty, that’s what we need to get right.’

He said the Government signalled its intentions on this 16 months ago when it launched a public consultation.

‘That ongoing consultation process is important. It’s important that we do get it right and I’m confident we will and we will introduce it later this year,’ he said.