Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being present today for what is an important debate. There is near unanimity in the Chamber. More importantly, at the outset, the Minister of State said he supports an exemption for peat extraction from the planning process because I know he gets just how important this is to the horticultural sector, including fruit and vegetable farmers, mushroom growers and many nurseries up and down the country.

As the Minister of State is aware, I now represent the constituency of Dublin Fingal which has the highest number of growers in the horticultural industry in the country. They feel neglected and under-represented. More importantly, they now feel their industry is facing extinction through absolutely no fault of their own or fault of the Government due to a ban on the extraction of Irish peat for those who produce the highest level of quality products in Ireland. This ban resulted from a court case.

The result of us failing to stand by the caretakers of our land and soil will mean that we will not see Irish fruits or vegetables on shelves in the coming months and years. The scientists of Ireland, who are passionate about looking after the quality of our soil and the water around them, do not take their orders from party leaders or whips the way we do. They take their orders from the land, sun, snow, nature and the environment. Quite simply, these people are farming our lands and are certainly not harming our lands.

Over the past number of months I have had the privilege of meeting dozens of people in north County Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Monaghan who are frustrated by the current situation. They appreciate the constraints and barriers, but as others have alluded to, they genuinely want a little bit of joined-up thinking from the three Departments concerned to make sure that we resolve this issue and get it over the line. The result should be that we preserve the livelihoods of employees and, more importantly, food production in this country.

I look forward to seeing the results of the report of the working group in the next couple of weeks. Substitute peat for the propagation of lettuces, broccoli, strawberries, mushrooms, nurseries, plants and flowers is not here yet. Even though there has been some research and development, we have not yet come up with alternatives. As has everybody else, I want to make it clear that importing peat is not the answer. The cost for the growers increases the cost of production. The quality of the peat being brought into the country, before we ever get the issue of the carbon footprint, means less of an output for our farmers. We cannot have that.

The peat we are used to harvesting in our bogs for fruit and vegetable growers and nurseries accounted for about 0.6% of our overall carbon footprint. If we are going to bring in 4,000 tonnes of peat from Latvia or anywhere else in the world every second week for the next couple of years to satisfy the needs of this market, albeit that it is of a poorer quality, our carbon footprint will go through the bloody roof. Nobody, even Senator Higgins, could stand over that and say that is a happy situation for us.

We have to recognise that all of us collectively have a responsibility to find a solution. In a number of weeks our mushroom growers will have absolutely no choice but to import peat that will consist of 80% water. Imagine telling somebody that we are going to import water from one part of the world to another and will then have to extract that water before mushroom growers can use it. One could not make this up. I know there are constraints and we find ourselves in unusual situations, but the buck has to stop with us because, as legislators, we have let these growers down due to the fact that we have not found a solution. I know it is not easy, because otherwise we would already have found a solution. It is incumbent on us to make sure we find a solution.I thank the Minister of State for agreeing to amend the planning Act to provide an exemption for the provision of peat extraction for the horticulture industry but we all know the elephant in the room is the need for the EPA to make a similar gesture. That needs to come loud and clear from all of us here today. It will not be forever and it is not to ignore all the arguments that have been made against peat extraction as something we should not be doing in the long term because it is not sustainable. In the medium term, we need to ensure we have Brussels sprouts for our Christmas dinners, and Wexford, north County Dublin and Meath strawberries on our plates at Easter. If we do not come up with a solution that provides an exemption to planning, and a provision for, or exemption from, EPA licensing, we will find ourselves having a different conversation about the future of Irish food production. This might be seen as a niche issue today but when the women who go to the supermarkets on a Friday and Saturday see empty shelves, there will be a hell of a lot more people outside Leinster House than members of our farming community.