Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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The matter I raise today relates to the importance of the horticultural peat industry to the Irish economy and the threat arising from unprecedented legal and planning problems facing the industry. As we know, peat is used in horticulture, particularly as a growing medium by both amateur and professional gardeners, professional growers and the mushroom, forestry and soft fruit industry. At one point my family was in the mushroom farming business so I certainly have experience of the importance of peat and the impact that is currently being felt with respect to other countries both within and soon to be outside Europe.

The Minister of State knows the Irish horticultural industry makes a very significant contribution to the Irish economy, with a farm gate value of €437 million in 2018, an employment value of €497 million and exports of €239 million. An estimated 6,600 people work within the industry and there are another 11,000 jobs in ancillary employment. It is very important.

We are not talking about a huge amount of peatland, as it is under 5% of the Irish peatlands under production, equating to 0.4% of the total Irish peatlands. The current legal position is that horticultural peat harvesting requires planning permission and a licence from the Environmental Protection Agency. This process can take between four and six years and it is unnecessarily burdensome and disproportionate. We could have a situation where many businesses could close when the horticultural industry runs out of peat, which will happen in July next year.This would be a very regrettable and would have major detrimental employment and economic effects on the industry that I mentioned. Without an indigenous supply of horticultural peat, many of our growers would have to look abroad, particularly to Lithuania or to Holland. The costs would be four times what the costs are here. Apart from that, we need only reflect on the higher environmental cost as peat production would be shifted from one part of the EU to another, resulting in Irish growers adding thousands of kilometres of a carbon footprint to what is happening at the moment. It is unacceptable and hypocritical to ban the use of peat in Ireland for horticultural products and then import it from another EU member state or a third country. What could happen, and as happened in the mushroom industry many years ago, is that those growing mushrooms, plants, strawberries and other produce here would be at a competitive disadvantage. They could lose much of the domestic market because of cheaper imports. On behalf of all of those currently employed in the sector, I ask the Minister of State to revisit this issue with his colleagues in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and ensure some compromise can be made.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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This is a sector with which I am very familiar. I worked as a landscape gardener for many years prior to and while still in politics. I am very much familiar with the issue and very much in support of the amenity horticulture side of it and in terms of nursery stocks.

In January 2019, the European Union (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Peat Extraction) Regulations 2019 and the Planning and Development Act 2000 (Exempted Development) Regulations 2019 came into effect. These regulations came into force after a decision by An Bord Pleanála upheld by the High Court that large-scale peat extraction is not exempt development and requires planning permission, as the Senator said. On 20 September 2019, the High Court ruled that proceedings brought challenging the regulations should be allowed on certain grounds. This decision means that peat cannot be extracted from areas larger than 30 ha from Irish bogs unless the developer has planning permission to do so.

Peat is traditionally a very important component of the national horticultural and amenity plant sector. However, while this is still the case, the industry continues to develop and progress. While currently there are no suitable or viable alternatives to using peat for mushroom casing, the horticulture sector is researching alternatives for peat such as biochar, spent mushroom stabilisation and other forms. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is supporting the research process by funding two research projects commissioned by Ireland's mushroom producer organisation, CMP.

My Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage published a consultation document, entitled A review of the use of peat in the horticultural industry, to fulfil action 5 under the national peatland strategy. The consultation invited written submissions from stakeholders to be submitted by the 20 January 2020.

On 7 September 2020, I published a report on the review of the use of peat moss in the horticultural industry. The review report was prepared by an inter-agency working group following on from submissions from stakeholders. After the publication of this report, I set up a working group to consider impacts on the sector. It is proposed that this working group will represent Departments, including Agriculture, Food and the Marine, State agencies, environmental non-governmental organisations and industry stakeholders. The working group will address the key issues raised in the report, including future use of peat by the horticulture sector. The position of chair for the independent working group that will be formed has been advertised and the closing date for receipt of the applications was 23 November. Once the chair is in place, we will set that working group to task in its important work.

Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. It is good to know the horticulture sector is researching alternatives for peat. While we are waiting for the alternatives to be developed, I ask that people would be able to continue to harvest the peat necessary. It is a concern that the working group has not yet met and a chair of it has not been appointed, but I assume it will start work in 2021, given that the current peat reserves will run out in July.We need to act more quickly and a solution needs to be found as soon as possible and urgently because there is the possibility of major job losses in my county, Kildare, north Dublin and other areas that have traditionally had many nursery growers. We have to put in place anything we can to safeguard the continued operation of the sector. I understand that two statutory instruments have been suggested. They could be a possibility. I ask the Minister of State to consider them again because we all have to protect jobs in the sector. We also have to ensure that proper after-use plans are put in place for the peatlands for the benefit of our future generations. We would all support that. This is about trying to find a compromise to support these 6,000 jobs.