There are calls for the Government to support immediate measures to allow the sale of turf harvested in Ireland during the current energy crisis to meet the needs of households struggling to meet rising fuel costs.
The government moved ahead of schedule to ban peat harvesting in Ireland in 2021 in response to EU directives on climate change, although critics point to the continued import of tens of thousands of tons of imported turf.
Since 2022, a total ban on the sale of turf online or by any other media including advertising in local press or from retail premises has been in place. Turbary rights – the right to cut turf for family use or to sell to neighbours – are unaffected though the fuel cannot be sold through retail channels.
Aontú’s Monaghan representative, Olivia Larkin, said that people are “badly struggling” in fuel price crisis sparked by the war and that it is “ludicrous” to think of people “freezing” while “we have turf in this country that could be sold”.
“This crisis is really biting and people are badly struggling . People are suffering from the sharp hike in costs for everything and while we may be in meteorological Spring it is cold, and the weather continues to be unsettled,” Ms Larkin said.
“I am acutely aware of elderly people, disabled people and those with young families who just cannot keep up with the huge increases,” she added. “Costs of everything are escalating on an almost daily basis, inflation is now running at 3.6% and this is shaping up to be the worst ever global energy crisis.”
“It is ludicrous to think that people are sitting freezing and afraid to turn on their heating while we have turf in this country that could be sold. This is a crisis and as we have seen from other crises, the Government can act very quickly when it wants to,” she said.
“We are importing hundreds of tonnes of peat into this country and meanwhile people are frozen and afraid of their lives to turn on the heating .It doesn’t make any sense at all on any level,” she continued.
“The health and safety of the people of Ireland must take precedent and we are calling on the government to exercise a bit of common sense and allow for the sale of turf during this turbulent time.”
The tradition of small-scale turf-cutting continues in County Monaghan, despite the restrictions and the prohibition of commercial sale, particularly in areas like Bragan, Carnquill, and Eshbrack, where families still cut turf as a source of winter fuel.
The Barroughter And Clonmoylan Bogs Action Group, which has opposed turf bans and advocates for the rights of local families to cut turf for fuel on private bogs called for action from An Taoiseach to support turf-cutters and enable the fuel to be sold to assist households.
“Taoiseach you need to encourage as many families as can cut turf to do so in order to prevent Fuel Poverty in the coming year,” the group said. “You should consider a small monetary incentive to these families so they can also help their neighbours.”
“I am calling on the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Darragh O’Brien, to lift the ban on turf sales. We are importing hundreds of tonnes of peat and briquettes into this country while banning the sale of our own natural resource. It was also a plainly idiotic thing to do, and it must be reversed,” said Deputy Nolan.
“I warned in 2022 that these rules would cause real hardship and anger in rural communities. At the time I described the proposed ban on the commercial sale of turf as a complete cave-in by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to a bizarre Green Party nanny-state agenda that was determined to infantilise rural Ireland.”
“Rural communities in Offaly and across the Midlands have relied on turf for generations. Indeed, it is not just fuel, it is part of our culture, our heritage and, for many households, the only affordable way to stay warm.”
“The current regulations which prohibit advertising and retail sales while allowing only limited gifting or private arrangements for those with turbary rights have created confusion, anger and genuine hardship.”
“The Government’s own policy has left us in the absurd position of importing fuel while criminalising the sale of our own. Enough is enough. I am demanding that the ban on turf sales be suspended immediately so that retail and advertised sales can resume,” Deputy Nolan said.
“The ban on selling turf commercially was introduced at a time when the fantasy land policies of the Greens held sway. It is high time now to row back on this kind of deluded nonsense and to allow the sale of turf for domestic purposes to continue,” she said.
However, supporters of the measure say that local authorities responsible for policing 2022 regulations which outlawed the sale of the most polluting solid fuels are telling told the Department of the Environment they need greater enforcement powers.
They argue that 1,600 death in Ireland each year are linked to polluted air.