Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Mr. O'Rourke, Mr. Dunne, Ms Kavanagh and Mr. Neenan for an informative and pragmatic overview of the situation in which they find themselves. As a Government representative on the committee, I am both disappointed and somewhat embarrassed that there has been no progress. When we last met the witnesses, we met departmental officials as well, and maybe I was naive at the time but I felt the working group would arrive at a solution. I thank the Chairman for allowing the witnesses to come before the committee at short notice. Everyone on the committee will agree it is imperative that we get these three Departments in before the committee as a matter of urgency. We will discuss this later, but our work schedule for the remaining days of this Dáil session needs to be set aside until we deal with this issue. As was rightly said, two months of the sector's harvest have been lost, and unless we get a breakthrough in a matter of days or weeks, the sector will not get any significant harvest this year. Mr. Neenan set out that the sector has put forward its own solution. It sounds workable and pragmatic. I am still not sure whether the working group has fact-checked that proposal or whether it has an opinion on it. We will have to get that from the Departments when we get them in before us because, in the absence of the Departments coming with another viable plan, that seems to be the only plan open to us at the moment.

As for replacements for peat for the horticultural sector, we talk about all the various options but there is no proven option out there. It seems ludicrous, given the strong horticultural sector we have, to suddenly stop supplying peat in the hope that something will magically appear overnight to replace it. There is simply nothing out there, and no business or PLC would make such a decision. For three Departments to procrastinate on this issue in the hope that somehow a replacement product will magically appear seems nonsensical.

I have one question for Mr. Dunne. His view is that Bord na Móna has stopped producing peat. I am based in Longford, and over the past four to five days, I have had numerous calls about Bord na Móna stockpiling large quantities of peat. I am just looking back on my notes on this. Tonnes of peat are being stockpiled in embankments of 100 m to 150 m at Clooneeny bog on the outskirts of Killashee. The plan is to continue stockpiling it, and over time it will be moved by lorries and sold on. However, it will take months to move the peat that is there and Bord na Móna continues to stockpile it. Clearly, therefore, the company is continuing to operate regardless of what has been said, and that is worrying. It is also worrying that the horticulture industry is basically being held to ransom while Bord na Móna, it would appear, continues to operate. If Mr. Dunne could shed any light on that, I would appreciate it.