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Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

Jackie Cahill: I remind all witnesses, members and those in the Gallery to turn off their mobile phones. Today's meeting is the continued examination of the horticultural peat supply. The committee will hear from representatives of Growing Media Ireland, the Commercial Mushroom Producers Co-operative Society Limited and the Kildare Growers Group. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

Mr. John Neenan: On behalf of GMI, the representative group for most of the horticultural peat and growing media producers in Ireland and the wider horticultural sector, I thank the Chair and the members of the committee for the invitation to speak. On behalf of the horticultural sector, I express our gratitude to the committee for the interest it has taken in this issue and for again...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

...of CMP Co-operative Society Limited and the wider edible horticultural sector for the invitation to speak. I am CEO of CMP, which represents mushroom producer members. Currently, horticultural peat is a key input material for our industry, as the committee knows. I am joined by Mr. Mel O’Rourke, specialist adviser to CMP, who was interim CEO before my appointment. On behalf of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

...of where we went and what we tried to do, we met a brick wall. We are not looking for any handouts but demanding that fair play and common sense prevail. Why is it that two reports on peat are sitting on shelves and have been completely ignored over the past nine months, with no competent plan of action or timeline put in place? If I ran my business in this way, I would not be sitting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

.... The total employment across the horticultural sector is approximately 17,000 people. It is sad to see an industry that employs so many people and is so valuable considering the volume of peat that is being used. The horticultural industry for amenity, soft root and vegetables uses 131,000 m3 of peat compared with the Netherlands, which uses in excess of 4 million m3 of peat which is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

Michael Collins: ...meaning. I will lay out all my questions because different witnesses may want to answer them. From what I can gather, there are major problems in the horticulture sector with dual media, the peat in the soil, this season. Even with 30% peat in growing media, growing of plants is very poor and the grower and consumer are getting much poorer products. It will put growers out of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

...of investment is via the producer organisation scheme. We have not been able to avail of any other pot of money. We would really appreciate Government support on that. Transitioning to being peat free by 2030 will cost us €19 million. That is not from processing this new substrate but from lost yield by using it until we reach an optimal blueprint and also from the input costs...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

...2004. We have been making our own wood fibre on site since 2013. I acknowledge what Deputy Michael Collins said that there are challenges when using these alternative materials. That is why peat moss has been the material of choice since the 1960s. The qualities of peat moss are that it has very good water-holding capacity and nutrient buffering. When these alternatives are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

Mr. James Spillane: I will round off some of the points. To answer the Deputy's question, it is likely that Ireland will become a net importer of peat. If we have not already reached that point, we certainly will in the very near future. This is to support the mushroom industry, specialist growers and growers that cannot at this point grow without some peat. It is something of an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: ...and mushroom sectors have told this committee on six different occasions that they are facing an existential crisis. They have told us there is no credible current alternative to the use of peat in their sectors. It is important to note that this evidence has never been challenged in any of the deliberations the committee has had. Nobody has given oral or written evidence to this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

...is the problem. The working paper that was prepared and submitted and which people have referred to, at the end of paragraph 6, states: Finally, it is accepted across Government that a level of peat extraction is required for the domestic horticulture sector ... Furthermore, it is accepted by Government that the fastest route to compliance lies in small scale bogs of less than 30...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

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) (12 Oct 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...this investigative journalist telling us about everything that was exported. Did Growing Media Ireland write back to educate them on the different parts that make up this and that it is not all peat? I spoke to Mr. O'Rourke earlier on. It needs to be explained to the ordinary Joe Soap who does not understand the requirements of horticulture peat, bedding peat or peat for mushrooms, and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

...confirm we would get a letter to say we did not. That was all up in the air at the time through the courts. Subsequently, we know that planning permission is now required. When the January 2019 peat regulations were enacted, and then struck out in September 2019, we set about applying for relief for substitute consent for our bogs. We submitted those applications in June 2020. In...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

...in here. We were pointed straight back to Dublin and told this was not an EU stricture. There is a myth here that it is the EU that has done this. Both our companies have permissions to harvest peat in EU and non-EU countries, in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. It is only in Ireland that we have this uniquely absurd problem, that no one wants to sort out because it suits. This is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

Mr. Mel O'Rourke: The mushroom industry is a specialised one, as everyone here knows. We need deep-dug black peat that has not been allowed to dry out. This is one of the pillars of why the industry has been so successful. Regarding the number of hectares of peat that would support the Irish industry, we are probably only talking about a requirement for 15 ha per annum. There is-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have one question. Is it 15 ha at a certain height? I ask this because there will be white peat on top, then brown peat and finally black peat be reached. In some bogs, it could be 1 m down and in others it could be 2 m down. It works, however. What I am trying to put together is whether one bit will work for horticulture and the other bit will suit the mushroom growers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

Mr. Mel O'Rourke: Okay. The top part is what we would call white peat, but perhaps the Deputy might call it brown peat.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

...to the endeavours of the working group. We contributed to the KPMG report. We then waited for another report that was meant to be giving advice on the number of kilograms or tonnes of available peat. We are now sitting back in here again two years later and we have achieved nothing. I think the phrase "death by stealth" was used. It is. It is death by a thousand cuts, or whatever,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Impact of Peat Shortages on the Horticulture Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Oct 2022)

Mr. Kevin Mahon: I am not an expert on other countries but all I know are the consents we have. Our company harvests peat in Germany, Latvia and Lithuania and we have been doing it for years without any issues. It is only in Ireland that there is this problem.