I thank the Ceann Comhairle for that announcement and of course we wish them well. We will miss them greatly in the Dáil.

In 1990 the then Minister, Mary Harney, introduced a ban on smoky coal within Dublin city and the Dublin region. This had a radical and beneficial impact on public health and the environment. It saved many lives and improved the quality of health of many others. This was followed by extending the ban to other cities and across the country but not in all locations.

It took courage at the time to do that and it took some foresight. Thirty years later it is incomprehensible that the last two Fine Gael-led Governments have failed to introduce a nationwide ban on smoky coal despite numerous promises to do so. An Environmental Protection Agency report on air quality, which is published in The Irish Times today following a freedom of information request by Jack Horgan-Jones, reveals the degrees to which towns that are not covered by the smoky coal ban are above World Health Organization air quality guidelines on a continuous basis. That is at many locations across the country. Enniscorthy has the highest observed concentrations of this pollutant among all monitoring stations in Ireland. We can look at Longford town, Roscommon and other areas and see a similar situation. The pollutants PM2.5 and PM10 are 20% higher there than in Dublin and Cork. This begs the question of why the lives, health and quality of health of people living in Longford or Enniscorthy are less important to the Government than those living elsewhere.

Professor John Sodeau from UCC has stated in dramatic - probably melodramatic - terms that Enniscorthy risks becoming the New Delhi of Ireland. He warns that the public health and climate change consequences for those areas not covered by a ban on smoky coal are very severe. He also refers to air particulate pollution that attacks every cell in the body and carries carcinogens, heavy metals, and acids. This pollution and harmful material is not just confined to those towns. It spreads across the country and moves about. Professor Sodeau makes the central point that air pollution is inseparable from climate change. Up to 1,500 lives are lost annually as a result of diseases linked to this particular air pollution. I ask the Taoiseach to read the accounts in The Irish Times today of Paula Freeman, an athlete from Enniscorthy, and Breda Flood, a 33 year old GAA activist from Gorey, who cannot watch sport outside during the winter period. We have had promises from previous Ministers, including Phil Hogan and Deputies Kelly and Naughten on this. Recently, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, delayed introducing this nationwide ban, 30 years after the first one was introduced. I ask the Taoiseach why there is such inertia, indecisiveness, lack of courage and conviction in such a vital public health matter, and why the lives and health of people living in those towns without a smoky coal ban are less important to the Government than those that were covered a long time ago.

I thank the Deputy and I join him in congratulating Deputies Clare Daly, Fitzgerald, Wallace and Kelleher on their election to the European Parliament. I understand that they will continue to be Members of this House until 2 July, but all of us would like to be associated in extending our congratulations to them as they move to a bigger House and new roles.

It is very much Government policy and a Government priority to improve the air quality in our cities, towns and rural areas. We want to do so not just because of health, because we know that poor air quality has a very severe impact on people, children in particular, with respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, but also as part of our climate action agenda. We can improve air quality in two major ways. The first is restricting or banning the sale of smoky fossil fuels, and the second is reversing some of the errors made in the past in encouraging people to buy diesel cars, which we now know are very bad for air quality because of nitrous oxide and sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides, SOx and NOx. The Deputy will be aware that though the then Minister, Mary Harney, did a very good thing for the people of Dublin in banning smoky coal, a subsequent Government did a wrong thing by encouraging people to buy diesel cars, which we now know are very bad for air quality and have damaged the health of our children.

The difficulty we are running into is that a number of coal firms have indicated that they intend to challenge the introduction of a nationwide smoky coal ban, which is Government policy. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, has received advice from the Attorney General on this. He is determined to reduce the levels of harmful particulate emissions from residential heating and is working to finalise a legally robust plan which will improve air quality, particularly in our cities and towns. Banning the use of smoky coal would have a positive impact on public health, especially in urban areas, but a number of coal companies have indicated that if the Government attempts to extend the smoky coal ban, they will challenge the new ban as well as the existing ban that applies in Dublin. If that challenge were successful, not only would we fail to go forward, we may even end up going backwards. These companies have indicated that they would challenge the ban on the grounds that we should also ban other fossil fuels, such as wood and peat, which they claim do as much harm in terms of air pollution as smoky coal. We have to give this proper consideration. We do not want to end up voting for the law of unintended consequences whereby we extend the ban but the ban in Dublin gets reversed. We also need to bear in mind the possibility that peat and wood do the same level of damage to our air quality and that we would therefore have to apply the same policy principles to them.

I find that response pathetic and incredibly weak. The ban on smoky coals was introduced in this city nearly 30 years ago. Thirty years later, the Taoiseach is saying that the Government cannot do the remaining 20% because the coal firms have said they will take legal action. The smoking ban would never have been introduced had we been afraid of the threat of big tobacco coming after us legally.

Hear, hear.

That threat was there all the time, but we went ahead. The bottom line is that, for any Government, public health is number one. Where the evidence is demonstrable in terms of the improvement in air quality and in improving people's lives where respiratory diseases and cancer, in particular lung cancer, are concerned, there is no argument. This Government should have taken them on without any hesitation.

We are down to the last 20%. It is shocking when one reads the accounts of people's daily lives in the towns where the ban on smoky coals does not apply. The comparisons between those areas of the country and those areas where the ban has been in place for a long time are significant. Health is being damaged as a result, but the Taoiseach is saying that he must give it due consideration. In 2013, the then Minister, Phil Hogan, stated that he wanted to see a ban on smoky coal throughout the country within the next three years. This was formalised by a later Minister, Deputy Kelly, at an air policy conference in 2015 where he stated that the ban would come into effect in 2016.

Time is up, Deputy, please.

He was followed by another Minister, Deputy Naughten, confirming to the Dáil in April 2018 that a ban would come into effect incrementally. In 2019, the Minister, Deputy Bruton, has deferred. Has the Government not been considering the ban for the past six years? Announcements from the Government mean nothing. When the Dáil declared a climate emergency, the Taoiseach stated that actions were what were important. There is an absence of action in this situation, as well as a complete indecisiveness and a lack of any firm response to the vested interests, which want to continue damaging our health.

I am sorry if the Deputy is angry and upset once again, but the answer I am giving him is the honest one, and that is that we have to give due and full consideration to this matter. Before the Deputy brought in the smoking ban in the workplace, I am sure that he gave full consideration to the legal consequences and legal risks before proceeding.

It did not take him six years.

I doubt he just went ahead without knowing the risks and preparing a defence.

We knew that there was a threat all the time. We were not fazed by it.

The same applied for me when I published the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015. We studied the law and we made sure that we would be on robust grounds if it was challenged in the courts. We examined what happened in other jurisdictions-----

Did Phil Hogan not study the law?

Surely that means that-----

Big Phil said it six years ago.

-----where it was challenged in the courts. I think-----

But this ban was introduced 30 years ago.

The Taoiseach without interruption, please.

Perhaps if the Deputy can calm down for a moment and contain-----

Are these the new lines, Taoiseach? The spin doctors have fed him new lines.

-----himself, I can give him something that might be of use and some help to him, that is, to advise him that powers do exist for local authorities to make decisions in this area.

They do not.

For example, recently Wexford County Council unanimously passed a motion calling on the Minister to extend the smoky coal ban to Enniscorthy. However, it is open to Wexford County Council to now make an order to begin the process to ban the burning of a substance under provisions of the Air Pollution Act 1987.

Time is up, Taoiseach.

So there are existing legal provisions that allow cities and counties to pursue the ban if they so wish-----

Two minutes ago, the Taoiseach said that the Government could not legally do it.

-----notwithstanding the risks.

So, Wexford County Council should take the initiative.

This is farcical.

The council will take this up.