Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 30 November 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

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

Mr. Seamus Boland:

There was a certain amount of due diligence with the Department because it had to properly manage the process of asking me to do it. I think I was asked some time around January. I cannot remember precisely but it was at the beginning of the year. It was hoped we would get it done by the end of May but it ran until the end of August because the due diligence had to be done, as we would expect, so that everything was above board. Unfortunately, some of that got in the way. We also extended it because we were not getting the solutions. We redirected it a bit and asked for a little more time. We had the report more or less done by August or the beginning of September. We worked as hard as we could on it. I apologise if it took longer than expected.