Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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I remind all witnesses, members and those in the Gallery to turn off their mobile phones. The purpose of today's meeting is the continued examination of peat shortages in the horticulture sector. The committee will hear from the Minister of State, Senator Pippa Hackett, and officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. All those present in the committee room are asked to exercise personal responsibility to protect themselves and others from the risk of contracting Covid-19.

Witnesses giving evidence from within the parliamentary precincts are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they give to the committee. This means that witnesses have a full defence in any defamation action for anything said at a committee meeting. However, witnesses are expected not to abuse this privilege and may be directed to cease giving evidence on an issue at the Chair's direction. Witnesses should follow the direction of the Chair in this regard and are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that, as is reasonable, no adverse commentary should be made against an identifiable third person or entity. Witnesses giving evidence from a location outside the parliamentary precincts are asked to note they may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as witnesses giving evidence from within the parliamentary precincts and they may consider it appropriate to take legal advice on this matter. Privilege against defamation does not apply to the publication by witnesses, outside the proceedings held by the committee, of any matter arising from the proceedings.

Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against any person outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. Parliamentary privilege is considered to apply to utterances of members participating online in this committee meeting when their participation is from within the parliamentary precincts. There can be no assurances in the context of participation online from outside the parliamentary precincts. Members should be mindful of this when they are contributing.

The committee will hear from the Minister of State with special responsibility for land use and biodiversity, Senator Hackett. The officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine accompanying the Minister of State are Ms Louise Byrne, deputy chief inspector, Ms Deirdre Fay, senior inspector and head of the horticulture and plant health division and Ms Rachel Wisdom, agriculture inspector in the horticulture and planning division.

Before the Minister of State gives her opening statement, I thank her for coming to this meeting. We have issued various invitations to other Ministers regarding the issue of horticulture and peat but we have failed to get those relevant Ministers to appear before us. We had representatives from the horticultural peat sector with us some weeks ago, including representatives of those stakeholders using horticultural peat. They were extremely worried about the availability of this material and the economic consequences for their industry if they cannot secure availability of suitable peat. It was recognised that as soon as an economic alternative can be found it will be possible to cease harvesting peat, but we are not at that point now.

I am extremely worried for the future of the users of peat now. To say these people were concerned the last day they were with us would be a serious understatement. They face many challenges with the rise in energy costs. Being unable to get suitable Irish peat poses an extremely serious issue in the context of the future viability of this industry. The witnesses who were with us gave figures concerning production capacity in respect of imported peat. Leaving aside the cost and the carbon footprint associated with bringing in that peat, the production capacity in that context was significantly lower than what they would have had from Irish peat.

As I said, we appreciate the Minister of State coming in. This is a topic we have addressed continuously in the last several years. Unfortunately, we do not yet seem to have got a solution to harvesting the small acreage of peat that would be required for the horticultural industry. I call the Minister of State to give her opening statement.