Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has hit out at the Taoiseach and accused the Government of punishing people who burn turf to heat their homes.
She said that the Government has done nothing to reduce the cost of home heating oil.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan is meeting Government backbench TDs on Tuesday as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael rural TDs are opposed to the proposed ban on the commercial sale of turf.
And Government Ministers including Norma Foley and Heather Humphreys raised the matter at Cabinet, sources have said.
It’s understood Minister Foley expressed that the Government wasn’t communicating effectively on the matter.
Speaking in the Dáil, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou Mc Donald said: “Your proposal is unfair and workable and should not go ahead.
“The timing of the proposed ban couldn't be worse, as people are hammered by the cost of living crisis which has seen energy bills go through the roof and which has put enormous pressure on people's pockets.
“For many families in rural Ireland turf is that one affordable way of heating their homes their only credible alternative is home heating oil, the price of which as you know has doubled in the past year.”
In response, the Taoiseach listed a number of measures the Government has introduced to help with the cost of-living- crisis including the energy credit.
Mr Martin said it’s important to protect the rights of people in the minority and traditional practices of turf sharing.
He said there’ll be no restrictions on people who own their own bog and said there is no ban on the gifting of peat.
Speaking on his way into Cabinet on Tuesday, the Taoiseach said a “pragmatic solution” will be found to introduce a ban on the commercial sale of turf.
He said that “ultimately smoky coal is the villain, the real enemy” and that “turf is dying out as a basic fuel”.
Minister Ryan has now suggested that rural communities of under 500 people will be exempt from the ban on the selling of turf.
He is adamant that the ban has to go ahead on health grounds.
At a meeting with Coalition leaders, Minister Ryan is understood to have said the draft regulations will strike a fair balance between reducing the 1,300 deaths caused every year by air pollution, while respecting the traditional reliance on turf in some rural areas.
Fine Gael TD Joe Carey and Senator Sean Kyne have hit out at their Government colleague’s turf ban.
The rural Fine Gael TDs said they are not “going to lie down” over the issue when asked about cracks emerging between the Coalition’s relationship.
READ MORE: Sinn Fein's Mary Lou McDonald seeks 'partnership' with unionists to build united Ireland
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