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)

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Like Mr. Boland, I am far from being an expert in this area. I meet people who tell me we should not extract a single ounce of peat, and everything in between. One of the questions that comes up constantly is how come, right across Europe, horticulture can be cultivated without the types of delays that exist in Ireland. That is a question often asked of me and I have no answer. I have to say that I am surprised there does not appear to have been any effort to answer that question in the report and analyse what is happening in other parts of Europe to assess what we are doing so wrong here, if in fact we are doing something drastically wrong that has led to the crisis.