Mr. Mel O'Rourke:

I will go back to the questions from Senators Boyhan and Daly about peat for the mushroom industry and alternatives. The mushroom industry is based on having a high-quality compost and a thin layer of peat on top of that compost to grow the mushrooms. The industry has been successful. People talk about the horticulture industry in general when it should be divided into subsectors. The mushroom industry is a subsector which exports €120 million worth of product to the UK. We depend on high quality casing material, which is a blend of peat and sugar beet lime or ground limestone. It is different from what is used in the amenity sector in that it is deep black peat that never dries out until it goes onto the bed to grow the mushrooms. The mushrooms absorb moisture from that peat. The peat requirement is only 20% of the growing substrate. For each cubic metre, which is equivalent to a tonne of meat, we grow about 5 tonnes of mushrooms. In a nutshell, the mushroom industry depends on deep-dug peat. There is no alternative in the short or medium term.

Research has been carried out in Israel, South Africa and Holland to find alternatives because they have to import peat. We are a net producer of peat and an exporter to most of those countries. In the short to medium term there is no alternative. To return to the point made by Senator Daly, the growing medium that we use in mushroom production can be taken out and used as a growing medium in another area of horticulture or it can be spread on the land for cereal production. It is widely accepted that it is a valuable product for the cereal growing industry, where it is spread on the land. We get a double use from that material.