BREATHING SPACE FOR IRISH STEAM IN COAL BAN DEBATE

Coal firms argue that wood and turf burning produces similar pollution levels.

Preservation in the Republic of Ireland has been given breathing space as the debate over a ban on smoky coal hots up.

The coalition government is backing away from an original proposal to impose a ban on just smoky coal, and instead intends to seek public opinion on extending such a ban to wood and turf.

With an election pending in the Republic, this effectively means that proposals for new controls have been kicked into touch.

The original plan for a blanket ban on smoky coal could have impacted on preserved lines and main line steam, although an argument has been advanced for an exemption for heritage operations.

This campaign is being spearheaded by the influential traction engine lobby, which organises popular rallies across the Republic every year, although the railway preservation lobby has not so far become formally involved.

A heritage exemption for Ireland would mirror such suggestions in the UK, in the face of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ proposal in

February 2018 for a similar coal ban (for the latest developments on the latter, see News, page 8).

Kildare North Social Democrat TD (member of the Irish parliament) Catherine Murphy raised the issue in the Dail in 2017, tabling a question as to whether the use of smoky coal would still be permitted for traction engines and other locomotives.

The other pressure point on the government is the threat of legal action from coal firms from outside the state who are resisting moves to single out smoky coal, arguing that this would be anticompetitive, since peat (turf) and wet wood produce similar levels of air pollution.

The fear in the Government is that if such a challenge was successful, it could undermine existing bans on smoky coal in urban areas including Dublin.

In tandem with this, several TDs from rural areas are resisting any moves to ban the burning of turf and wood, which is a traditional means of heating houses in the country.

CHARLES FRIEL GNR(I) ‘Q’ 4-4-0 No. 131 approaches Greenisland with the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s 2.37pm Belfast Lanyon Place to Whitehead Santa train on December 21.