Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I would like to put on the record that I have found the Minister of State to be very approachable. He and I have had many discussions about this issue, through Commencement matters or whatever else. I have always found the Minister of State amenable.

I have listened to the debate. We all have one thing in common in this House, which is the love for our climate. Everyone has a responsibility to do all that we can to ensure that we reduce the carbon footprint, regardless of what element of society we come from. If we are going to take the Irish people with us on this journey, the messaging has to make sense. I have no doubt that if the messaging makes sense, the Irish people, especially the farming community, will do the right thing, as they have always done. I say "messaging" because I would contend that the messaging about this issue is confusing. We are saying to people that they cannot extract 0.1% of the entire peatland of the State for the purpose of horticulture.

I refer specifically to the mushroom industry in County Monaghan. The horticulture sector would use 0.12% in total and the mushroom industry would be much less than that. Somehow, it is okay to import thousands of tonnes into this country every fortnight, coming from the Baltic states or wherever else. It is okay for 200 trucks to drive round Latvia, pick up their cargo, take it to a port, ship it across thousands of kilometres to the Irish Sea and have it arrive at a port here, where 200 trucks have to load their cargo and drive up the boreens to deliver it.

Creating jobs in this country is not easy. Creating jobs in a place like rural Ireland is a much more difficult task. We are fortunate in Monaghan that we have a strong agrifood business.One sector of that agrifood business we are very proud of is the mushroom industry. It is estimated that the mushroom industry employs 3,500 people out of the 17,000 mentioned here earlier. Many of those jobs are located in County Monaghan. Monaghan Mushrooms is the largest exporter of mushrooms in Europe and the second or third largest in the entire world. There are loads of other smaller enterprises and small farmers with small mushroom huts that keep their families going. What we are talking about here this afternoon is common sense. We need a temporary, commonsense solution in order to sustain those jobs. When someone from Monaghan Mushrooms knocks on my door and says we have a crisis I will listen because there are too many jobs at stake not to do so. We are not saying this legislation is perfect but I hope it acts as a catalyst so the Government will finally act. I am not pointing the finger at the Minister of State when I say that because there are more Departments involved in this decision-making than just his. It is vitally important and we have gotten to a critical stage. Somebody needs to grasp the nettle because there are too many livelihoods and jobs at stake in rural Ireland, where it is difficult to create jobs. I ask that the Government act on this. I have asked the Minister of State to do this several times. I know he is doing his best but we need action and we need it now.