Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I get very annoyed in all these debates about the horticulture industry. North-east Roscommon, as the Minister of State knows because he has relations I am very friendly with in that region, and the areas around Ballinasloe, Galway and Shannonbridge are major peat areas. They are very seldom referenced in the debates. When we talked about job losses with the closure of ESB and Bord na Móna peat operations, the Minister of State well knows that the area I live in is, I am proud to say, surrounded by bog, and is huge. We have suffered considerably as a result of the changes that have come about.

I was educated in horticulture. It is what I went to college to study. My first job was as a horticulture teacher and technician. I know a little about this although I will not say I am absolutely expert on it. Before the programme for Government was agreed, I wrote a short document for our party on what we needed to do with this industry, especially in relation to the green agenda. If you want the green agenda to succeed, horticulture must be at the top of that agenda. It is such an important ingredient in getting to your carbon count because of the fact you are dealing with plants, soil and that type of thing. People involved in horticulture are very passionate about the environment. We are talking about one tenth of 1%, just imagine, of Ireland's total area of peatlands to supply the Irish horticulture industry.

There has been a very good debate here with very passionate contributions from the Leader, Senators O'Loughlin and McGreehan and others. The reality is that while it was great to have that good debate, the one damn thing we need now is a solution. I acknowledge that a good while back I heard the Minister of State speak about this issue on the local radio stations, Shannonside and Northern Sound, and he was very strong on it. There are three parties in the Government, which I am part of and that I support. As far as I am concerned, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party Ministers have to solve this issue. There is one way of solving it, whether it is through emergency legislation or whatever, and we must get agreement on this, which is that we bring in legislation on a temporary basis allowing extraction from peatland.

When we speak about this issue it is also important to point out it was not the Government that closed extraction down, and this was referenced by Senators, it was a court order. When that happened action should have commenced on how we could have supported our horticulture industry. It is a very significant area in terms of revenue and it could be expanded greatly. It would be very good, environmentally, to deal with horticultural issues in terms of carbon count and all that type of thing. Bringing in peat from Latvia and dumping it on a bog in the Minister of State's county is shocking and disgraceful. As a politician, I am ashamed that is going on.

Today, I am very confident this matter will now be solved. It has dragged on for far too long. People in the industry have been very patient and very quiet in making their representations to all of us and they have been very fair about it. By the way, I repeat that many of those people are very environmentally friendly but by our actions and the type of carry-on that is happening now, we are actually turning off the people who are pro-environment and who look after the environment. We really are. It is a cart before the horse scenario and what is happening is totally wrong. I welcome the fact the working group will report very shortly but that report cannot sit on a shelf. It needs to be acted on straight away.

It was well-nigh impossible to get a continuous run of Irish tomatoes in Irish supermarkets this year. No matter how I asked, they would be there one day but not the next. One supermarket continuously supplied Irish tomatoes that were totally traceable to north County Dublin. That supermarket was not Irish; I will not mention it because I am not supposed to. There is the issue of big supermarket conglomerates supporting Irish products. I do not blame the shopkeepers, but conglomerates buy their stuff abroad. However, a chilled tomato is not anything like one produced in your country for quality and taste.

As everybody else has said, I am confident this will be solved. There is unanimity on this issue in the Seanad and common sense has to prevail. If we carry on like this, we will completely destroy the role of horticulture in controlling the carbon count and improving our environment. We have to do that but we are going the wrong way about it right now.