Sinn Féin’s motion to scrap the planned ban on the commercial sale of turf was dismissed in the Dáil last night after a vote was held on the matter. The party sought to cancel an increase in carbon tax and temporarily remove the excise duty on home-heating oil. According to reports the motion was cancelled out by a government amendment to it through a countermotion.
Sinn Féin Cavan-Monaghan TD Matt Carthy said before the vote yesterday that if the government’s countermotion was passed it would “esentially delete what was being called for in the party’s motion.
Speaking after the vote, Carthy criticised government TD’s who supported the countermotion. Carthy claims that “after all the bluster from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, tonight they voted against a Sinn Féin proposal to reduce a fill of heating oil by €118; against reductions in diesel, petrol and agri-fuel; and in favour of [a] turf ban.” Several of his colleagues expressed the similar views.
Galway West TD Mairéad Farrell says it is disappointing that, despite all the rhetoric from government TDs, they failed to support the Sinn Féin motion tonight. Donegal TD Pearse Doherty called the vote against his party’s motion “shameful”.
In the Dáil yesterday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and his cabinet colleagues spent a good part of the day trying to allay concerns over the proposed turf sale ban. The Taoiseach noted that a minority of people in the country now use turf to fulfill their energy needs.