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Minister Mícheál Kitt Signs new Voluntary Agreement with the Solid Fuel Trade Group Ltd

08/10/08

Mr. Mícheál Kitt, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Mr Pat Downes, Chairman of the Solid Fuel Trade Group Ltd, who represent the major solid fuel importers and distributors in Ireland, including in Northern Ireland today (8th October, 2008) signed a new voluntary agreement concerning sulphur emissions of bituminous coal and petcoke.  The new agreement is a successor to the 2006 and 2002 agreements between the Department and the SFTG.

The new Agreement, which runs until the end of the fuel season in July 2011, locks in place significant environmental gains achieved by the previous agreements through maintaining ambitious limits on sulphur levels in bituminous coal and petcoke. ‘By renewing the existing agreement for the voluntary sulphur limits for coal and petcoke and maintaining existing smokeless zones we are determined to ensure we protect our air quality’ noted the Minister. 

Minister Kitt and Pat Downes

The Agreement also provides for keeping under review the extension of the coal ban to new large urban areas, should this be required to maintain air quality standards. In this regard, the Environmental Protection Agency has been asked by the Department to review the number of towns which are subject to regular monitoring  in the light of changes in population as part of the Programme for Government commitment on monitoring Air Quality Nevertheless, the agreement requires that SFTG Ltd. will maintain the smokeless fuel market penetration level of 75%, as a percentage of overall solid fuel sales in the towns and environs of four large towns which are not currently designated as ban areas, namely Athlone, Carlow, Clonmel and Ennis.

‘The objective of this new Agreement is to carry forward the environmental gains achieved under the 2002 and 2006 agreements and to maintain reduced levels in smoke and sulphur emissions arising from residential use of solid fuel’ Minister Kitt said.

The Environmental Protection Agency Air Quality in Ireland 2007 report which was launched recently shows that air quality in Ireland was good throughout the country and complied with all the air quality standards in force across Europe for all pollutants.  The EPA report noted that smoke concentrations for the reporting period April 2006 to March 2007 were low. 

“The good air quality results for 2007 are in no small measure due to the success of the series of coal ban areas introduced since 1990, and the effect of the previous voluntary agreements with the Solid Fuel Trade Group in reducing the sulphur content of bituminous coal and petcoke,” Minister Kitt concluded.

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