Mr. Barry Delany:

I apologise. I was waiting to be let in. I hope the committee can hear me clearly. I am the head of horticulture and plant health. I thank the Senator for his questions and I take many of his points on board in terms of the importance of the sector. There is a difference between the peat that is used in mushrooms, black peat, as opposed to that which is used in the amenities sector, brown peat, which is harvested in a different way, comes from different bogs and is approached slightly differently. In terms of the peat for the mushroom sector, it is a matter of compliance. When one looks at the figures the horticulture sector is putting forward to us in terms of what is required domestically each year to produce that €120 million that is traded, it is 113,000 cu. m or ten to 15 ha. in total. The reality is it is a compliance issue here and we should be able to work towards that with the appropriate parties which are extracting. There does appear to be a route for that given what Mr. Lucas has said earlier on in explaining the approach that can be taken there.

In terms of the peat alternatives, as the Senator has said, the head of horticulture in Teagasc gave an interview on Saturday and outlined some of the issues and proposals it has done. We actively looked to alternatives on peat and we funded a number of research projects through the producer organisation scheme of which commercial mushrooms are part, as well as Monaghan Mushrooms. Within that, they are looking at stabilisation and peat-casing reduction, spent mushroom compost and the potential for blends and substitutes and partial peat replacers. That is ongoing. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is supporting that via the implementation of the producer organisation scheme. We also issued the 2021 research call. Within that one of the areas of research was to find alternatives to peat-based growing media for horticulture production which are available, affordable, sustainable and meet quality, environmental and productive requirements.

One is looking at evaluating each sector because, obviously, what will work in the ornamental sector is different to what will work in mushrooms at the amenities side in the vegetable sector as the Senator has outlined. One is looking at options around coir, green waste compost, rock wool and then further diluting and blending. That is all ongoing. Within all of that, there are further considerations around research beyond that as well. We hope that the research call will issue its approvals shortly and we will come back and let the committee know what is approved and update it on that. We are actively involved in that space but as the Senator pointed out, a period of time is required to get to the use of all these alternatives.

On the amenities side in particular, blends are already being used. When growing, peat with blends of 10% to 20% including wood fibre, coir and rock wool are being used. It is moving and steps have been made in that direction and it is conscious of needing to make a transition towards peat-free and has committed to doing so.