The Government is launching a new campaign aimed at extending a ban on smoky coals nationwide.
A public consultation will ask the public to give their views on how the rule can be designed and implemented, with a view to having it in place later this year.
The consultation will also examine risks associated with the burning of other fuels, such as wet wood and turf.
There are 1,300 premature deaths in Ireland each year because of air pollution, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Environment Minister Eamon Ryan said cleaner air is crucial to save lives: “We can’t be polluting or seeing 1,300 people a year die.
“It makes real sense to switch to smokeless coal. It's a better fuel, it's actually cheaper in terms of the amount of energy you get from it, so it's actually better for people's pockets as well as for their lungs and hearts and head.”
Bans on the burning of smoky coal are in place in Tramore as well as Waterford City. However, the ban does not currently cover County Waterford due to population size.
Opposition
The Irish Examiner reports that the Green Party leader is pressing ahead with the ban, despite opposition from Fianna Fáil.
Former minister for agriculture Barry Cowen was among a number of Fianna Fáil TDs who called on the Taoiseach to reject the proposals at a meeting of the parliamentary party on Wednesday evening.
Mr Cowen said households should be allowed to use turf, while Senator Timmy Dooley called on the party to support a bill he is putting forward which would ban smoky coal but not turf and timber.
Separately, Sinn Féin has called for people living in rural areas to be protected and given alternatives if a ban comes into place.
Sinn Féin TD Claire Kerrane said: “Improving air quality is obviously very important, but people clearly need help to transition to those cleaner alternatives.
“We can’t have a situation where we’re banning essential fuels that people rely on, including many older people, when we’re leaving them without any alternative.”
New standards
While smoky coal was outlawed in Dublin 30 years ago, there are still 63 towns across Ireland permitted to burn the fuel.
Mr Ryan said he is also committed to introducing new standards so that firms are not allowed sell wet wood, which is harder to light and creates more air pollution in the home.
“It's the same with the turf, it's not an outright ban which Barry Cowen was talking about last night, it's not that, it will continue to allow people as they've done for years, decades, centuries to burn their own turf to be able to use turf in that way,” Mr Ryan told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
“But it's similarly setting standards around the sale of such products to say we have to have certain standards so that we protect people's lives.”
