Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I sound something like a broken record but I want to talk again about mushrooms and the mushroom sector, this unique product which is neither a vegetable or fruit but is a fungus. This product is branded at great cost and expense by Bord Bia on behalf of the State and is exported all over the world. Up until recently, it was being flown out of the country and three days later it was sitting in the refrigerators of Harrods, and all over London, Paris and Europe. There has been great innovation in the mushroom sector in its growing methods and in the development of vitamin D and added subsets into the mushroom food as part of this imagination and innovation. The sector faces wipeout unless the Government urgently brings in legislation to introduce a resumption of peat harvesting on some selected bogs and I deliberately use the term “some selected bogs”. I understand the challenges and they are important but the reality is that shipments of peat imports are now arriving into Ireland, despite all of the debate about carbon leakage. Despite all of the issues we now have, peat and alternative peats are coming in here from the Baltic states, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the UK. This is total hypocrisy in terms of greenhouse gas policy.

I have referred to Bord Bia and the significant budgets it has used, and rightly so. Bord Bia is an amazing organisation that we can be proud of. It has done amazing work in the agrifood sector, one which I support. Last Friday, we debated just transition and we will talk again about it this evening in respect of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill, but just transition is also about jobs, household income and bringing all the people with us. Most of the representations that I receive are from the workers in the mushroom sector in Monaghan, Kildare, the midlands, and in particular, Wexford. They are challenged by this. They tell me - I believe them and I have questioned Teagasc on these matters - that there is no real, practical, viable alternative to milled peat. I am not making a case for the nursery or forestry staff because I understand that there are alternatives, difficult as they are, but for the mushroom sector, other than vermiculite and other substances, there are no such alternatives. Let us support the workers, these rural communities and the mushroom sector and bring in emergency legislation to deal with this crisis, which will be a difficulty for us in respect of jobs and incomes for these families in a matter of weeks, not months.