Results 1-20 of 26 for peat segment:8005280

Did you mean: pat segment:8005280?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Jackie Cahill: ...are visible to all participants. Speaking slots are prioritised for members of the committee. The topic for this meeting with representatives from Growing Media Ireland, GMI, is the impact of peat shortages on the horticulture industry. I welcome Mr. John Neenan, chair of GMI, Mr. Kieran Dunne, Kildare Growers Group, Mr. Mel O'Rourke, Commercial Mushroom Producers, and Ms Anna...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Victor Boyhan: ...this issue quite extensively. I am very supportive of the horticulture sector and particularly the witnesses' sector. It is grossly unfair and hypocrisy at its best to talk about bringing in peat or substitute peat from the Baltic states, such as vermiculite, cocoa shells and so forth. We know they simply do not work. We know from the Teagasc representatives who appeared before the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Mr. John Neenan: I thank the committee for inviting us to the meeting at such short notice. As the Senator said, the industry is in a critical stage. Peat supplies have virtually run out and will be finished by the end of September. That will certainly cause major upheaval, with potentially up to 17,000 people made unemployed. It will also affect the sector and nurseries that have been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Paul Daly: I welcome our guests. Like Senator Boyhan, I condole with them on their plight. I see the pure ridiculousness and stupidity of it. I know hauliers who are hauling peat from Drogheda down to the south of the country. We have this climate change and climate action debate in these Houses on a regular basis. The one key message is the bringing of people with us and having buy-in from the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Ms Anna Kavanagh: The Senator covered a lot of topics there. I hope I get to all of them. Peat is the best growing medium and that is why we have been using it for decades. Irish peat is the best in the world. We have seen that over the decades because people have wanted it. It is medium-decomposed peat and has the best air and water properties. It has a high lignin content so it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...will not happen. It is my experience that when one Minister is talking in the Dáil, another Minister is sitting behind. We need honesty from politicians about where this is going for the whole peat sector. In the witnesses' opinion, was a solution agreed? They can do all the reports they want and have all the meetings, working groups and BS, to be quite frank about it, but if...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Mr. Mel O'Rourke: I will go back to the questions from Senators Boyhan and Daly about peat for the mushroom industry and alternatives. The mushroom industry is based on having a high-quality compost and a thin layer of peat on top of that compost to grow the mushrooms. The industry has been successful. People talk about the horticulture industry in general when it should be divided into...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Michael Collins: ...In light of the 30% to 50% increase in costs and reduced quality, many growers believe that will go out of business. There is no transition plan for the industry. I ask the witnesses to explain why peat is being exported from Ireland while Irish growers have to purchase raw material from abroad at huge additional carbon footprint, which puts the Irish grower, especially small...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

...asked if the working group had come up with a solution and, if so, what it is and if there was general agreement in that regard. There is a general consensus that there needs to be a harvesting of peat in Ireland. That was the view across the working group from Friends of the Irish Environment to An Taisce and from the experienced horticulturists around the table. The short-term...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Mr. Kieran Dunne: Correct. That goes to the Deputy's point on the sub 30 ha. If someone has sub 30 ha, that is, 75 acres, is it not a good news story that the rest of his or her peatland would be reinstated and he or she could harvest that area? Is that not common sense? We have removed more than 90% of harvesting through Bord na Móna exiting the industry. A comment was made about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Tim Lombard: ...centre. I welcome the contributions, which have been informative and given us a great view of the crisis in the industry. The timelines are frightening. By next September, we could be out of peat, which would have an impact on many parts of the horticulture industry. We have spoken about the working group and the long-term goal of moving the industry in a slightly different...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Martin Browne: ...'s contents or was his just a letter of acknowledgement? What can the working group tell the Government that GMI or the rest of the sector has not told it? GMI has told us of the impact of the peat ban, what growers need and the outlook for the sector.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

...report, but it was not unanimous. NGOs such as Friends of the Irish Environment, An Taisce and one or two more basically wrote their own report. The interim report effectively recommended that peat harvesting continue throughout 2021 under emergency legislation and that legislation on a single system from 2022 onwards be introduced. I am not a legal eagle, but our legal people have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Paul Kehoe: ...told me the story to be absolutely 100% right. Mr. Dunne has confirmed this now. It is a scandal that Department officials and Ministers would stand idly by while we have thousands of tonnes of peat stockpiled ready to be used and people are not allowed to cross the bog to access it. I find it ludicrous. Maybe if they used helicopters they might be able to bring it in or perhaps they...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Joe Flaherty: ...Departments when we get them in before us because, in the absence of the Departments coming with another viable plan, that seems to be the only plan open to us at the moment. As for replacements for peat for the horticultural sector, we talk about all the various options but there is no proven option out there. It seems ludicrous, given the strong horticultural sector we have, to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Mr. Kieran Dunne: I certainly can. It is not my view that Bord na Móna is not moving any peat. That statement came from Bord na Móna at an IFA meeting. The only peat Bord na Móna has at the moment is for briquettes. It is fuel peat, not horticultural-grade peat. I know this from walking the bogs and from the officials in Bord na Móna. Horticultural peat can be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Ms Anna Kavanagh: I agree with Mr. Dunne. Even the bog he mentioned would not be used for horticulture. I am pretty confident that Bord na Móna has finished the supply of horticultural peat. Deputy Fitzmaurice asked about research and development and whether it would take five to ten years or whatever else. It is difficult to answer that question. Going on my experience in the UK,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Matt Carthy: ...that when the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Ryan, was challenged by me and others in the Dáil on the solution, he volunteered that it was the importation of peat from third countries. That is a lunatic position. It is lunacy in economic terms for the operation of the farms I mentioned but even from an environmental perspective, if environmental and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Jul 2021)

Mr. Kieran Dunne: It has to be a fast-tracked approach. The seriousness of the situation is that what happens over the next six weeks will either mean we have secured peat product of our production for 2021 and 2022. It is not just about this season or this month and next month. That will secure our 2022 production. That is a very serious situation. I am told by the Department that it...