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

The horticultural sector is crucially important. It supports the employment of 17,000 people. It has particular emphasis in a number of geographical areas.

My constituency is heavily dependent on the mushroom sector. The reason for that is farmers did what they were told. They were told to diversify. They were told to move out of beef on smallholdings. They did that and now they are faced with an existential crisis beyond their making.

There has been too much dithering on this issue. We have had working groups, reports and expert commissions; we have had everything. The only thing we have not had is action that will allow the horticulture sector to know that it will have an adequate supply of horticultural peat until an alternative is in place.

There needs to be an alternative found but that has to be a sustainable and management alternative. In the meantime, people do not want to hear what the problems are because they know what they are. They want to know how their jobs will be saved, how the businesses will be saved and how the economy will be protected. What specific actions will be taken by the Department that will allow this sector to have that confidence?

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