Mr. James Spillane:

I will round off some of the points. To answer the Deputy's question, it is likely that Ireland will become a net importer of peat. If we have not already reached that point, we certainly will in the very near future. This is to support the mushroom industry, specialist growers and growers that cannot at this point grow without some peat. It is something of an inevitability at the moment. As Mr. Neenan said, statistics have been cited in the House, in the media and online with regard to peat exports, all of which are inaccurate unfortunately. The figures are gathered by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, from Customs and Excise under a code, namely, peat and the agglomorates. Agglomorates are all the materials to which Mr. Mahon referred, including wood fibre, bark fines, fertiliser and a whole raft of other ingredients such as coir and pomace, which are blended to reduce the amount of peat being used. As an industry, we are trying immensely hard to find and use alternatives and the materials are being referred to as though everything is peat. The code the CSO provides is peat and agglomorates, which includes peat and alternatives. The fact of the matter is that less and less peat is being exported every day. Practically none is being exported at this stage. While Bord na Móna has acknowledged it exported peat for a period, it is no longer doing so but that is included in the statistics. The agglomorates situation shows numbers that are inaccurate. There is an element of North-South exports as well. We take some peat North and South and process it for growers specifically. By and large, the quantities are becoming irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.