Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I am not going to repeat what has been said, but I am glad to see this debate happening. We went outside earlier and spoke to many of the businesses and people who are front and centre in this crisis. The Minister of State will be aware of all the issues. We have a crisis in this area and it must be sorted out. We can come in here and talk about where the fault lies, but it remains the case that we have a peat crisis. Horticultural businesses need some clarity. We cannot be importing peat. As other speakers said, funding has not been put into research to find alternatives to peat and we have now found ourselves in this situation. It is a crisis. We need emergency legislation for a short time until those alternatives are found.

I reiterate the importance of the horticultural industry in this country. It accounts for 17,000 jobs overall and 6,600 people are directly employed in the sector. This is not by any means a small issue. We can see the fear and worry being experienced by the people outside. They are welcome to come to talk to us. This issue has been raised in the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party. I have been raising this issue, along with my colleagues whom I can see here today, Senators Gallagher, Murphy and O'Loughlin.We have raised this issue for more than a year and we have not seen any improvement in the situation. We are here making statements instead of providing solutions. I want a solution to this problem because time is of the essence. In addition to solutions, we need a just transition for more than just the midlands. The just transition needs to be for everybody. We need to consider alternatives and focus on how we will move forward as a sustainable, environmental, fuel industry in this country, because we have the natural resources to do so much better than we are at present. It is unfortunate that we do not have the solutions here today, but I hope they come in the near future.