Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It was great to have the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, with us yesterday to launch the Shannon master tourism plan. It was a great day for the region and all living around the River Shannon.

Unfortunately I do not have too much time but the Acting Chairperson might be kind and give me a minute or two. I do not think it is fair for any Senator to say that anybody who put their name to this particular Bill was doing it for any cynical reason. I studied horticulture in college and my first job for a number of years was teaching horticulture. I was involved in running a horticulture business for some time. I certainly did not put my name to this for any cynical reason and I do not believe the Senators who put their names to it did that either. What everyone has to realise is that we have been lobbied by a lot of genuine people who are seriously concerned about their future.

Like Senator Gallagher, I have to say that any time I approach the Minister of State he is a gentleman. He listens and he understands the crisis we have. I want to acknowledge that publicly. However, it is our job to fight, whether we are in government or not, for people who need that bit of support. I have never lobbied for the big exporters. Senator Garvey was right when she said that we need a debate. We need to discuss what is happening. I even heard a rumour that some of the peat that was imported from Latvia could have been exported again. I urge Senator Garvey to share that information with us as quickly as possible. I am sure she will.

We cannot just return to what we were doing. I am fully committed to what we have to do with our bogs and I am fully committed to what we have said we will do on climate change but we cannot have peat being imported from Latvia to serve Irish growers. I am told that despite what we saved by closing down our bogs, this continuous importing of peat from Latvia will actually cost us an awful lot more in its carbon footprint. We are defeating the purpose of what we are trying to achieve and that is a difficulty for the Government.

I and the other Senators who signed this Bill are here for the right reasons. To be quite honest, I am glad we do not say "Yes sir, no sir" or "Yes ma'am, no ma'am" just because our party is in government. We will stand up for people and we have to stand up for them. I am standing up or the small growers. The Minister of State has a great understanding of small growers and he is concerned. I have spoken to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Taoiseach and have mentioned this to the Minister of State. Quite a lot of peat was extracted in the Mount Dillon area on the Roscommon-Longford border and has not been used. That should be used for the horticultural sector. It is suitable and I am sure that 80% of what is lying there in piles could be used. It has been extracted and I do not think there is any point in putting it back into the bogs. It would get us out of this situation. We are only talking about the mushroom industry and other parts of the horticultural industry, which will be in crisis if we do not solve this problem.