Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As further elaboration and for the information of witnesses, we had a detailed meeting with an official from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage a couple of months ago at which we were assured that the working group report would be available in mid-April and would allow for peat extraction for the horticulture and nursery industries. I hope some progress will be made on that on foot of today's meeting. An Taisce's report states that we still have not developed an alternative to peat for the horticulture and nursery industries. To the man in the street, it is environmental and economic madness to import peat from eastern Europe for those industries. As Deputy Carthy said, we will either import peat or export our mushroom industry. The sector is a vital employer in and a core part of rural Ireland, especially in certain areas. The mushroom and horticulture industries are extremely important. Hopefully common sense will prevail until we have a viable alternative to peat.