Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing my time with Senator Garvey. If the Bill before us was going to solve the problems of the horticultural industry I would say that. I think people know I am straight enough to do that. However, it simply is not. Making me the enemy by pointing that out is not helping anyone. It is not helping the horticultural sector. We need to distinguish between growers in this country and those who are making money out of extraction. We must point to the fact that ten times the amount of peat is being exported as being imported, otherwise it is a completely dishonest conversation.

What this Bill does is recreate regulations in primary legislation that were struck down by European law in 2019. It is on that basis the Government is opposing it. Let us be really clear about that. Peat is a global commodity. For Ireland it has always been a global commodity. Of the peat we extract, 90% is exported. That continues to be the case today, years later. I completely understand the frustrations. I have them myself. I would be more than happy to put down a joint motion saying we need to move on this. However, with respect, it is not just 18 months we have been waiting for this. It is ten years. We have known for ten years this was a problem coming down the tracks. The Minister was already bringing a memo to Cabinet, as I think most of us know. I appreciate people wanted to create an urgency around this but we must also take on board the Attorney General's advice. That means opposing the Bill today but it also means being really honest about what is going to hold the solutions for the horticultural sector.

Given there is some extraction that is permitted under Irish law, I do not understand why we are not seeing that extraction happening on the ground, unless it is because it is not profitable for a large business. I received an email from a large extractor, as I am sure most Senators did, pointing out that there is no problem with EU law. That is incorrect. The Attorney General's advice will tell us it is incorrect but common sense would too. Let us look, therefore, at the proper solutions around this. Some people have asked me where my evidence is for the illegal extraction. They should come to the west of Ireland or come to the midlands and they will see the evidence of illegal extraction all around them. Nobody in this country has a licence for extraction, other than Bord na Móna. Who then is doing all that extraction, because it is not Bord na Móna? Perhaps it will be argued the extraction is all being done by people who are doing it under 30 ha but that is certainly not what research from UCC showed. It actually showed there are 50,000 ha that are being extracted over 30 ha.