Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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I have a few questions on the Vote. A working group has been set up to discuss the effects that the ban on peat harvesting will have on the horticultural industry. The group has only just given its interim report to the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, and the recommendations are weeks away from being published. Is the Department aware that suppliers to the industry are fearful that they could go out of business by September if the harvesting and horticultural period is not allowed?

I want to put it on record that when we talk about horticultural peat use in the mushroom industry, over 80% of the mushroom industry is peat free and that only 15% of the peat base is necessary to allow mushrooms to sprout. Does the Department have concerns about alternatives to horticultural peats such as coir and so on? They will need to have fertilisers, nutrients and bio-stimulants added to them. The run-off from these additives will have an impact on water courses, rewetted bogs, potentially, and ultimately on pollution levels. This is a requirement with the ban on horticultural peat, which goes against the farm to fork strategy that we all have heard about.

Is there a case for the moss peat industry to continue to harvest peat on a case-by-case basis? I mean where binding guarantees are given that cut-over bogs post harvest will be allowed to regenerate ecologically in perpetuity and that whatever post harvest activities is allowed.

On rewetting bogs, at a meeting of this committee in March Dr. David Wilson spoke about the Abbeyleix project where no flooding was reported and said that it was a role model. I asked him about the issues surrounding the Shannon area where industrial extraction took place and when I read the transcript of the debate I realised that Dr. Wilson did not offer solutions on the flooded areas. Can the witnesses offer more certainty or solutions?

The use of boglands has changed the landscape. What level of certainty does the Department have right now about the impacts that rainfall, for example, would have on rewetted lands that have been harvested for decades and are very different from what they once were?

Finally, on the ability of the small scale turfcutters to work on private bogs with 30 ha and below, does that apply to a single landmass of 30 ha or is the landmass connected to a bog miles away due to hydrological circumstances? What impact could rewetting have on those farmers?