Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and the speakers for all of the information that they provided to us before the meeting. I commend the Chairman, who has led from the front on this issue and I hope that our witnesses will find a great deal of support as a sector from this committee. We are steadfast in our determination to find a pathway and future for this sector. In many respects the sector has been wrongly vilified. The public at large misunderstands what the sector does and confuses it with Bord na Móna. It is important that the sector makes and gets heard its point that it is just looking at 1.5% of the peatlands in the country. Everybody who has done research on this sector realise that it is a successful, sensitive and progressive sector. In the midlands, specifically, we are conscious that more than 6,000 people are directly employed across this sector and a further 11,000 indirectly. This is a sector of great importance for every community in the midlands and many of these businesses are family enterprises. We have already seen the heart of the region wrenched out with the demise of Bord na Móna and the ESB. I was struck by a comment from the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in a headline that leaked out from agriland.ie, in which she stated that it is absolute nonsense to have a reliance on imported peat. Her follow-on argument is that we have to look at alternatives. Our colleague, Deputy Carthy, alluded to that. This sector has worked with Teagasc over a number of decades at this stage and we must be realistic and put on record that the viability of an alternative use to peat coming on stream soon is highly unlikely.

We are very proud of this sector, which supplies 30% of the mushrooms into the UK market and has evolved over time. In research terms, this is one of the most progressive sectors, where one can look at Kerry Group and what Teagasc has achieved. There is no immediate and viable alternative to peat available at the moment and the sector is certainly not getting a just transition. It is unfortunate and very difficult for all of these businesses to be thrust into the public eye and to have to come here, almost cap in hand, to plead for their future. I am particularly conscious of Growing Media Ireland, which represents many of the businesses I am familiar with in counties Longford and Westmeath.

It is unfortunate that we did not get to read the opening statements but specifically with regard to producers, can the witnesses give the committee their three asks as to what they want us as a committee and as Government parties to do, as a follow-on from today, to help safeguard and give the sector the viable future it deserves?