Cabinet ministers are “not so much on different pages of the script, but flat-out contradicting each other” when it comes to the proposed nature restoration law, ICMSA president Pat McCormack has said.

'Policy sepsis'

He said the Government’s position on both the midlands rewetting project by Bord na Móna and the nature restoration law, which could impact thousands of hectares of drained farmed peatland, most resembled “a form of policy sepsis”.

A problem that could have been dealt with quickly has simply been allowed to develop to a dangerous level, due to neglect and a “continuing inability to listen”, he said.