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:

Absolutely. I am not telling the Chairman who to invite or not to invite in here. Is critical to get that office up and running.

On plant products, since Brexit, the UK has moved on in areas such as gene editing and adopting those measures. The Deputy is right that we are currently talking about this. There are moves afoot within the EU and the horticulture sector would be included in that. It is mainly looking at cereal crops at the moment but there may be a role for the horticulture sector in future.

The Deputy is right in what he said about peat and there needed to be a just transition there. As I said earlier, there are things that still could be done here. The fact that the EPA is looking at including multiple sites in a licence is creating problems at the moment. Many farmers have equipment lying idle that could still be harvesting some peat.

I will ask Ms Brennan to respond on inspections. She has done much work in representing farmers, even in the High Court in recent times.