Mr. John Neenan:

I believe that they just hope we will go away. I am a little surprised by this situation. We can at least get gas in the current energy crisis, but the price is sky high. If we have no horticultural peat in Ireland, we will not be able to import it from the Baltic states or Canada - first because of the price and, second, because it will be going east rather than to Ireland. We can get gas to keep us going for a time, albeit at a crazy price, but if there is no horticultural peat, we will not have an Irish horticultural industry in a short time. It will be impossible for the large companies to import peat while also spending the money that Westland Horticulture, Klasmann-Deilmann, Bulrush Horticulture and so on are investing in alternatives. I am going to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on Friday when I will invite officials to visit the Klasmann-Deilmann facilities and see all of the various alternatives and volumes. Klasmann-Deilmann is even trying to compost its own willow to see what can be done with it.

The Departments do not seem to understand what is happening and what the context of what we are trying to do is. In a working group meeting that Mr. O'Rourke and I attended, one of the NGOs suggested that an alternative would be to pick the bracken from the ditches in west Cork to supply the horticulture market. If we sent out a group of people to pick bracken in west Cork, I am sure we would be stopped as well. It just shows the level of understanding of what is happening.