Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 16 February 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief with just two questions. I welcome Mr. Lucas here today. He is a person I have dealt with for many years. Deputy Fitzmaurice knows more about bogs than I do but we have had many meetings over the years particularly about issues in rural Ireland.

Who will be deciding on the working group and will it be balanced? I have no doubt it will bring in all the appropriate Departments. What worries me is not Mr. Lucas’s fault but is totally the Government’s fault. It relates to the formation of the Government and the way it broke up the Departments, which results in no one having responsibility for this issue. As a person who was in government for a long time, I know what happens when nobody has responsibility for nothing. The result is nothing happens.

I must say that Mr. Lucas always listened and tried to come up with solutions. I give him ten out of ten for trying to come up with solutions. I am confident this working group will work but there must be balance on the group. It cannot be made up only of environmentalists. In spite of what Deputy Leddin might think, I am as much in favour of the environment as he is. If he wants to, he can come to the place I have in relation to the environment. The problem with Deputy Leddin and a few of these people is that it always seems to affect rural Ireland more than it affects any other place. It affects our jobs and the way we live. It is fine for people who do not live in rural Ireland, who do not understand rural Ireland and who lecture us about rural Ireland.

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