Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am going on to a different remit of the Minister's responsibilities. Thousands of jobs in the horticulture sector are under threat due to the prohibition of peat harvesting on Irish bogs which have a landmass of more than 30 hectares. While this is not just the remit of the Minister's Department, her Department does hold ultimate responsibility for the use of bogs in this country.

Peat extraction on all bogs over 30 hectares is restricted due to the striking down of legislation regulating the harvesting of peat. The result is that private companies that harvest peat for the horticultural industry are left in limbo. This is having a major impact on the mushroom-growing industry as commercial mushroom growing is primarily done on a blended layer of wet peat that stimulates the formation of mushrooms. That material is provided by the private companies to which I referred.

With almost 18,000 people employed in the sector, directly or indirectly, there is a huge problem in the industry when we are trying to reboot the economy and reopen following the complete lockdown of the last two months. The facts are that the commercial horticulture sector makes a significant contribution to our national economy, with a farmgate value of €437 million in 2018 and an employment value of €497 million in 2018.

A Government report from October 2019 reviewed the use of peat in the horticulture industry. It stated that the output value for the sectors using peat as an input in 2018 included €117 million from mushrooms, €38 million from protected fruit, €29 million from protected vegetables, €36 million from nursery stock and €19 million from protected ornamental crops. According to Growing Media Ireland, which represents most of the country's privately-owned producers of horticultural peat, this situation will also impact on the tillage sector, as 130,000 tonnes of wheat and straw go into mushroom compost each year.

This is not, therefore, a trifling matter and livelihoods are depending on the action and support of the Government. What is holding back the beginning of the 2020 harvest is a ruling that those seeking to extract peat from Irish bogs larger than 30 hectares have to acquire planning permission prior to obtaining a licence from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. According to Growing Media Ireland, much money is being spent by companies trying to get alternatives to peat. We hope they will be successful.

In the meantime, it is up to the Government to fix this problem, initially for the 2020 harvesting season, because it is having an impact on the food supply chain. Whatever solutions are found down the road are irrelevant at present to the almost 18,000 people who depend on this industry for their livelihood today. We cannot allow the welfare of a food industry to be held to ransom now when there are scientific developments being sought to solve the problem in the near future. Therefore, I ask the Minister, with her other Government colleagues, to address this problem and allow the industry to proceed for the 2020 season.

To move to a different topic, the Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business states that small weddings will be allowed to take place in phase 4. The wedding industry is a major source of employment for artists, the musicians who perform in the church and at the reception, wedding photographers and wedding videographers. The total lack of clarity as to what numbers are likely to constitute a small or large wedding has resulted in many people choosing pre-emptively to postpone their weddings to a date in 2021. Furthermore, what social distancing measures will be put in place to allow these weddings to go ahead? Will the bars be allowed to open? We are two months out from this date and it is unfair of the Government not to give some guidance to the would-be brides and grooms and those working in and relying on this industry to earn an income. The booking of venues and artists for weddings in many cases is done up to two years in advance. Therefore, we need urgency shown by the Government in laying down some clear timelines for the industry, for the artists and for the people who are planning a major day in their lives. We do not want this to be like the leaving certificate, where uncertainty prevailed for a long period of time until an exact road map was finally put in place.

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