Ryan's attempt to introduce ban on turf sales 'reckless' - Burke

Minister Eamon Ryan's plan to ban the sale of turf this September is “reckless”.

That's according to his coalition colleague Minister of State Peter Burke who said his position on the issue is “very clear”.

“I am vehemently opposed to the ban and I communicated this to the Tánaiste. Number one it's not in the programme for government. Number two it wasn't agreed by the parties in government. You can't advance proposed legislation without the agreement of the party leaders and number three I think that the minister went about this recklessly

“In order to bring society with you have to have alternatives, you can't go from nought to 60, people need to have access to alternatives.

“If you are advancing aggressive proposals without alternatives the upshot is that you fail to bring society with you.”

Minister Burke added that the failure to bring people along could have the opposite affect than the one intended by Minister Ryan and could ultimately slow down the effort to “bring Ireland onto a sustainable path”.

“It's reckless to try and implement legislation like this without consultation and agreement [with coalition partners]. I will be be working hard to ensure that it won't be the case.”