No more turf fires?

[Hairy-Joe]

I hear on the radio that Eamonn Ryan is planning on stopping the sale and distribution of turf.

Personally I think it's the wrong decision. People have burnt turf for hundreds of years. The big turf users in the ESB and Bord na Mona are not harvesting. The small amount that individuals take is nothing by comparison.


Turf is a fuel in rural Ireland and a lot of people rely in it. Mr Ryan is divorced from the reality of living in Rural Ireland

[Del.Monte]

Private individuals with turbary rights are still allowed to cut turf but they will no longer be able to supply other people. Commercial turf cutting should have been stopped in a phased manner years ago and the sudden shut-down of Bord na Mona operations with seemingly no thought of the horticulture industry is typical of the way our politicians ham-fistedly handle things.

[Hairy-Joe]

Personally I've no "skin in the game" as I dont use open fires. I still think it's a daft decision.

[kadman]

I hear on the radio that Eamonn Ryan is planning on stopping the sale and distribution of turf.

Personally I think it's the wrong decision. People have burnt turf for hundreds of years. The big turf users in the ESB and Bord na Mona are not harvesting. The small amount that individuals take is nothing by comparison.


Turf is a fuel in rural Ireland and a lot of people rely in it. Mr Ryan is divorced from the reality of living in Rural Ireland

Mr Ryans salary allows him to take the pick of the crop when it comes to the choices of the best energy for the home and transport that stops harming the planet. How about saving the cost of paying him when the useless shite falls to sleep when he is supposed to be engaging in the dail.

Any normal person would be sacked.

[Del.Monte]

I am a natural Green voter but Eamonn Ryan needs to be shown the door, along with several others in the party, and they need to re-focus on the environment rather than social engineering.

[marhay70]

I think most people are concerned about what's happening regarding climate change etc. and all things being equal, will make their contribution but gobshites like Ryan can't seem to grasp the fact that there are times when events take precedence over ideologies.

[SmartinMartin]

He's a gobshite. They need to dump him asap.

[Hairy-Joe]

I can see this hurting rural FF & FG greatly. People will remember this and even though it very much looks like Mr Ryan shooting off his mouth with a proposal, FF & FG will get blame from the electorate for "supporting that daft idea".

The whole thing shows how divorced Ryan and the Greens are both from ordinary folk living outside the major urban centres and politically. The cute thing to do would have been to launch a "consultative process" with all stakeholders and have all solid fuels on the agenda. That could have started a debate and process to get rid of all smoky fuels. But Mr Ryan hadn't the cop on to go that way. He just announced "and they're gone!"

When it comes to the vote, I can see Mr Ryan getting schooled in politics. I can see a lot of the rural FF and FG TD's suddenly "going missing" when the vote's being called and not voting at all. That way, they won't have broken the party whip by voting against but the missing votes will be crucial. However, if quite a few gubberment TD's vote against (I'm thinking maybe 10 plus), they can't afford to remove the whip from that many.

Don't be surprised if this leads to an election. Stranger things have happened (tax on kids shoes brought down one government before)