Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. I think Deputy Carthy said this might be the seventh time we have had the horticulture and mushroom industry before us. We can hear the frustration in our guests' voices, as well as in our own, that we are back here again talking about the same thing. I disagree somewhat with what the Chairman said to Deputy Michael Collins about the Ministers. The Minister with responsibiltiy for heritage refused to meet us today and we have also had the other Ministers refuse to come in. They remind me of children saying "I am not coming in unless the other two are coming in". They need to cop themselves on a small bit and come in so we can get this solved.

Has GMI made contact with the Minister's office on this overall issue or has he even made contact with the organisation? It seems that since the working group's report was issued he considers his work is done or else GMI and the other stakeholders in the industry's calls for action on the sub-30 ha peatlands are not being treated as a viable proposal and they are being officially sidelined. What is our guests' response to that?