Mr. Philip Nugent:

I am from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. We acknowledge straight up that we are conscious of the supply difficulties that are being experienced by the horticulture sector. We are acutely conscious of that. What we are conscious of is the distinction in the horticulture sector between those who have found themselves in this position through no fault of their own and those in commercial peat extraction who have found themselves in this situation, in large part, through non-engagement with the regulatory regime. That is an important point to put on the record. We are and have been extremely active in trying to find solutions. We have been active members of the group established by the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, and we continue to take part in the discussions at senior level between the three Departments.

What we have been saying all along is that it is not open to the State to simply remove the requirement that operators must regularise their past unauthorised development. This derives from the EIA directive and we cannot get away from that. It was addressed in a High Court judgment of 2019. What we have said is there is a pathway to regularise activities and the route to reactivating peat extraction is through engagement with the dual consent regime. Actions may be required in the short to medium term, but the long-term solution is through engagement with the dual consent regime.