Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is a tricky issue. As a child, I was reared while going the bog, footing turf and having great craic in the bog every year. It is what we all did in rural Ireland. The only thing I ever regarded as having to do with re-wetting bogs was when the turf did not get home in time and the sods got wet again.That was some years ago now. We are where we are, however, and it is a very different time and place. It is horrendous that food growers are struggling to grow food in this country because of the situation we are in, considering we are still importing 80,000 tonnes of spuds from England each year. There are lots of issues with food production and imports. The horticulture sector is worth nearly €500 million to the Exchequer, but there is still a lot more we must do also. What the sector is doing is great but we need to support it and go further and substantially increase the amount of food we are producing in Ireland if we are to be sustainable.

With regard to turf, peat and bogs, this is not a Government-created problem. EU regulations had to be implemented in Ireland. Bord na Móna was not following those regulations and it lost a court case. Bogs were being cut on a huge scale. It was not only the 0.1% of the bogs used for horticulture. They were being cut on a huge scale all over Ireland without planning or environmental impact statements. That was a serious issue which came to the fore in the court case. The Government's plan was for Bord na Móna to continue harvesting peat at a reduced level until 2025. This would give the horticulture sector time to do research and come up with alternatives. People have said there are no alternatives but that is not the case. We do not yet have alternatives because the work has not been completed to facilitate the transition we have been landed with. Bord na Móna operations were closed down suddenly and the stock sold off because it was no longer viable. That decision by a private company landed us in this position. We can blame everybody and nobody but, at the end of the day, that is what happened. It happened much quicker than anybody in government had foreseen.

Good work has been initiated by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, in looking at research into alternatives and what we can do in the meantime. We can talk all we want about planning exemptions, but we must be very careful because we have seen where the planning process has led us in the past when we built on bogs and flood plains and caused huge problems in other sectors also. We need to do something because this is an emergency for the growers, some of whom are friends of mine. Many of my friends make a living out of growing food. However, we must act it in a way that works. We must not cut off our nose to spite our face. We must get this right.

The problem with peat for the horticultural industry did not land a few weeks or months ago. It was foreseen when the EU regulations were introduced in 2013. The horticulture section of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is well aware of the issue and Teagasc is doing some research on it. As soon as he was appointed, the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, started more research on this matter. It is not, therefore, a new problem but one that was foreseen. Unfortunately, Bord na Móna's decision to shut down peat-cutting meant the horticulture sector had to bring in peat from Latvia. It is madness that it has come to this, as everyone in the House will agree. Nobody wants that.

It is great to hear Senators expressing concerns about the carbon footprint of importing peat. If they care deeply about that, they should consider all the other stuff we are bringing in from all over the world and that we are hoping to export pigs to China. If, all of sudden, we want to have a proper debate on the carbon imprint of imports, as everybody does, we need to be honest and remember it when we are discussing other sectors also. It is interesting today to hear that some people have suddenly become obsessed with the carbon footprint of imports when half the stuff we have comes from China and nobody has ever mentioned that before. Let us have a fair and honest debate.

The situation with bogs and peat is very tricky. We all love the bogs and in rural Ireland we love cutting turf. It is sad to let go of old traditions but our old traditions will not save us in the climate and biodiversity crises. That is why we are at these mad crossroads. This aspect will come up under lots of issues, including horticulture, transport and energy. This is where we are at so let us not play political football with this huge crisis we face. At the end of the day, we and our children and grandchildren will be left with the consequences. It is a disgrace and shocking that members of the horticulture industry had to protest again today. Let us be honest about the debate we need to have to resolve the problem and not try to blame any sector or wash our hands of responsibility. The sector needs actions and solutions, not politicians playing political football.