Dáil debates

Thursday, 15 October 2020

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate

Agriculture Industry

4:20 pm

Photo of Pippa HackettPippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Cahill's final comment that it does not make sense to import peat here. The bottom line, however, is that the sector will have to transition away from peat. We will not have an endless supply of peat even if we wanted to continue with extraction. In the interim, as part of that, there may well be scope to facilitate that by focusing on the domestic demand for horticultural peat rather than exporting. Regarding the 10% that stays here as opposed to the 90% we export, there may be scope there, which would seem to me to be a reasonable approach in that we would put our growers ahead of those abroad.

My Department, in conjunction with the industry, is actively looking at alternatives to peat. While there are not yet any suitable or viable alternatives for mushroom casing, my Department is currently funding two research projects that have been commissioned by Ireland's mushroom producer organisation, CMP. In terms of the two elements to that, there is one on a spent mushroom stabilisation project. The objective of that project is to develop a rapid aerobic process to stabilise spent mushroom compost and create a by-product that could be used as a growing substrate within the sector. That work is ongoing.

The second alternative being looked into is a peat casing reduction project. The objective of this project is to examine the impacts of reducing the quantity of peat used as a casing material in mushroom production. A number of alternative substrates can be used but they have issues in terms of sustainability and their location.

This is an issue but I believe it is something the sector can embrace with proper support from my Department and others. I look forward to a healthy and vibrant horticulture sector moving forward.

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