Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 October 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Challenges Facing the Fruit and Vegetable Industry: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Tim Cullinan:

The Senator knows our position on that issue. We have this ridiculous situation where we are exporting peat but importing it for use in the horticulture sector. There is an issue relating to councils and the differential with the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. The EPA is including multiple sites from which peat could be harvested as one and taking them over the threshold. It comes back to regulation. If we had reasonable regulation of this, we could harvest adequate supplies of peat for the horticulture sector. It makes no sense that we have to import peat from Russia or wherever it is coming from. It is about the regulation in respect of this issue.