Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 November 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Michael FitzmauriceMichael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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That is all subject to how good a summer is. A bad summer would mean only one crop but a good summer could produce six crops. Looking at all of these reports, there are a lot of recommendations. It is correct to say a whole-of-government report is being looked but we are still referring back to that High Court case in the last few weeks or the last few days. I did not hear an outcome from that, so I do not know. I cannot comment on that but it is still talking about the sub-30 ha. We are of the understanding that you have to be able to show that the sub-30 ha is not hydrologically connected to the rest of the complex. Is the sub-30 ha the direction in which we are heading? It seems a spanner was thrown into the works because of that High Court case. That could be in doubt as well.

I know the Minister of State has a lesser part to play in it and I am acknowledging that. The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications will be the big game player in this in terms of the planning side of it. Is there going to be collaboration on this? This report is going on and on and now it looks like we need three more bits of reports after this report. Where is the end game that we get peat to the horticulture sector instead of importing it from other countries by boat? We need to get it up and running and put the research into it for 2030 and 2035. I think everyone is in agreement with that. It is now that we need to stop the boats coming halfway across the world to resolve the issues. Will the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine work together on this? Is there going to be something within one, two or three months to say we are going to have a system here that will make sure that we will guarantee future peat? That is all we want to know.