Seanad debates

Tuesday, 30 November 2021

Horticultural Peat (Temporary Measures) Bill 2021: Second Stage

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Róisín GarveyRóisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. It is so great to have the House agreed on wanting to support the horticulture industry. It is fantastic we are all agreed on that. I hope everybody takes that into account when buying their fruit, vegetables and plants so they are only buying off local horticultural growers, as there are many in Ireland who could do with our support.It is great we all agree on that.

It is also great how everybody keeps saying they really care about our bogs, which is fantastic. No more than Senator Boyhan said, it is great that people say they really want to support our bogs, but then there is a full stop. There are no "buts" on this issue. People cannot say one thing and then say we should start going back to harvesting our bogs again. Let us make it very clear that 11 times the amount of peat needed by the horticulture industry is exported from this country. If we want to tackle this issue, be honest about it and not use it as some kind of political football, we would ask why we are exporting peat when our horticulture industry needs it right now. That would be something worth talking about and enacting.

This Bill does not serve any purpose. First, it is asking us to break the law, which is a complete contradiction for legislation. Second, it is a pity that Green Party Senators were left out of the discussion on this Bill before it was introduced, because we know peat and bogs. I would have happily informed Senator Doherty and her colleagues about information we have on the export of peat, which is a major issue. If we want to sort out horticulture issues, we should stop the madness of exporting ten times what we bring in. We should also stop going on about this 4,000 tonnes of imported peat and all of a sudden caring about carbon emissions when the party referring to those things is talking about exporting pigs to China. Let us be real and honest and have a proper, clear debate on this issue.

Some 500,000 tonnes of peat have been exported from this country since last January. Why are we not up in arms about that on behalf of our horticulture industry? As Senator O'Reilly pointed out, there is big difference between the small horticulture business and the big guys who are making a lot of money from exporting peat. Why are we not targeting the latter and asking them what they are doing? Do they have environmental impact statements? Why are they exporting peat when our horticulture industry needs it? Let us have a proper, intelligent and nuanced debate about the issue of peat and stop with the "We care about our bogs, but ..." approach. There are no buts. We either do this correctly and have an intelligent debate or we are wasting everybody's time. Let us not use this issue as a political football. We all care about the horticulture industry. Many of my friends and acquaintances have jobs in the sector. We need to do it right. If we are exporting peat, why are we saying we will go back to cutting more peat? If we are exporting peat, why are we not giving it to the horticulture industry? Let us have an intelligent debate on peat and saving our horticulture industry instead of playing political football.

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