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

I did not say it had. The Minister of State commissioned this working group that mentioned Bord na Móna six different times, yet she is here saying she has no responsibility for Bord na Móna. It is central to the working paper her Department produced. She has appointed an independent expert with a specific remit. The second action in the working paper specifies this independent expert will be working with Bord na Móna, but it already did a deal with an Israeli company before the independent expert was in contact. Any peat extraction must be done legally. Does the Minister of State accept we need to find a legal mechanism by which peat can be extracted for our domestic sector in Ireland so that we can have robust environmental oversight? Does the Minister of State think it is tolerable that the mushroom sector and other horticulture sectors will be forced to continue to import peat from the far side of Europe at a much higher environmental cost?

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