Seanad debates

Wednesday, 13 October 2021

10:30 am

Photo of Tim LombardTim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I acknowledge his presence here and his meeting with representatives of the horticulture industry. It was very important that such an engagement happened. Politics has been damaged over the past 18 months because of this issue. Where we are going with our climate action plan is also damaged by these debates.

We are talking about probably less than 1% of our bogs and how we include that percentage in our horticulture industry and the 17,000 jobs that depend on it. That is a very significant figure for rural Ireland. Outside the gates of Leinster House today there were horticulturists, owners of mushroom plants, workers and everyone, telling their stories about how their industry has been affected. They have been grossly affected by an issue that is something we can solve.

The real damage done is to the policy we have been trying to implement regarding our carbon emissions. It is very hard for us to stand up in rural Ireland and say we are trying our best to reduce our carbon count when peat is being brought in from the Baltic states and transported across the country in 200 truckloads. We are talking against ourselves in many ways and that has caused significant damage. If anything, we are playing into the hands of climate deniers because of what is happening. On many occasions over the past few weeks, we have seen the argument used against us, on local radio and in local newspapers, that this Government is now flapping on the issue of climate because it cannot even solve the issue of peat extraction, at a very small level, to help an industry that will collapse unless we get something done. That is why the Minister of State's speech was very helpful and is a good step forward. That is the kind of positivity we need to portray when it comes to this issue.

I am the Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Like other Members of this Seanad, we have had engagements with Ministers on this issue that have brought no clarity to the situation. I welcome the report that will be published at the end of the month but we have been waiting months for it. The idea that we wait ten years for a strategy to be put in place to find another mechanism will not be appropriate. We need to find a solution we can put in place to ensure this section of society can live within the parameters that are there. We are talking about less than 1% of our natural bogs. We are not talking about burning peat or that kind of scenario. This is something to ensure our horticulture industry can survive. If we do not get real movement on the issue, a Seanad special select committee should be set up. This is one of the issues about which we should be talking. There are varied interests across the Seanad. We have seen that in the context of other issues in the past. That is a possible solution at which we might have to look if we do not get appropriate action in the next few months. If this lingers and moves forward, it will be up to us. We did appropriate work on the climate action Bill and, in many ways, got the backing of rural Ireland. We tried to get everyone in the same boat. We need to get everyone moving forward. If action is not taken, that would be an appropriate step forward.

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