Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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104. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the final report of the working group on horticultural peat will be published. [46428/21]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I established the working group referred to by the Deputy, under independent chairman Dr. Munoo Prasad, to examine important issues which had been identified during the Review of the use of Peat in the Horticultural Industry.

The working group is comprised of representatives of the relevant Government Departments, State Bodies and Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations and sectors within the horticultural industry.

Dr Prasad has held 11 meetings of the working group to date, and has had a number of presentations, from, for example, the Chair of the UK Growing Media Association, an Associate Professor at the School of Agriculture and Food Science in UCD, Teagasc and from growing media producers and horticultural industry growers.

I understand that the final report is to be completed and sent to me by the end of September 2021. The report is expected to identify possible alternatives to peat and to outline the research required to produce commercially effective alternatives for the Horticulture sector.