Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy's question relates to mushrooms and the wider horticulture sector. The decision by Bord na Móna to cease harvesting has directly affected the sector. The mushroom industry does not tend to acquire peat from Bord na Móna, so it has a slightly different problem, albeit we are going to reach a stage at some time in the future when nobody will be using peat for horticulture, certainly across Europe, and in the wider world. Therefore, the Deputy is correct that there is a necessity to have a just transition to facilitate growers to move away from this growing medium to another more sustainable source. That is something I hope the working group formed by the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, will be looking at, although it is specifically looking at the horticulture sector, not the wider peat extraction piece.

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