Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government contains a commitment to ensure that the transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable economy is fair. However, many communities are sceptical about the Government's intention to be fair in the transition process. Much of the scepticism comes from their experience of the last time that the Green Party was in government. The living memory is that of a Government which introduced token measures which did little for environmental protection but hammered local communities. Have any lessons been learned?

One area where that question will be answered relates to horticultural peat harvesting. This activity is crucial to the mushroom industry, a particularly vital sector to my home county, Monaghan. Despite what the Minister's advisers may tell him, people at the coalface of this industry state there is no alternative to horticultural peat. If the peat is not available in Ireland, then it will be either imported from elsewhere or the mushroom industry will leave Ireland.

That is what I mean by tokenism. Such a move will do nothing for the environment. In fact, the carbon footprint would likely increase. The economy in my county, however, would be devastated. On 7 September, the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, announced he was establishing a working group to examine the use of peat moss in the horticultural sector. I would have said this was a good move. However, crucially, he stated the terms of reference would include the predetermined outcome of graduating the elimination of the use of peat moss in the horticultural industry. That is not the action of a Minister or a Government that wants to deliver a fair or just transition. It exposes a lack of understanding of horticulture and the mushroom sector in particular. The articulated linkages that have been made between peat extraction for horticultural use with that of peat extraction for energy use are spurious and dishonest.

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There is 1.3 million ha of peatland in this State. Only 5,500 ha are used for horticultural peat, amounting to 0.4% of total boglands. Some 500 ha would sustain the mushroom industry for the next 100 years.

Coupled with these medium- and long-term challenges that the Government appears intent on introducing, there is also the immediate debacle with the planning system, which has been exacerbated by the Supreme Court decision in July in cases involving An Taisce and An Bord Pleanála which, if urgent action is not taken, could result in several years of delay in the process and bring the mushroom production process in Ireland to a halt much sooner even than would have been envisaged.

The questions for the new Green Minister are the following. Will he resolve in the first instance the backlog in the planning and regulation process or will he pursue tokenism at the expense of rural economies, such as in County Monaghan? If the latter is his intention, he will face fierce resistance. The economy in County Monaghan, for example, is dependent on indigenous industries such as the mushroom sector. Successive governments have done virtually nothing for job creation in our county, so we simply cannot allow Government to remove some of the jobs that are in place in the name of environmentalism but, in truth, just as a facade to cover up for its failures to deliver a real and effective carbon action plan in its programme for Government.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Deputies should not think this will happen under their watch and that they can simply shrug their shoulders and blame the Greens. They should not try to act like mushrooms because people are wise to that. The Deputies from those parties have a responsibility to represent and protect our rural economies and communities. Those rural communities will be watching their actions very closely.

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