Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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223. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will revise the decision to reject the recommendations of the Working Group Report on Horticultural Peat given the increased need for food security following the Ukrainian crisis and its impact of food supplies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13712/22]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The Working Group referred to by the Deputy, was established following a series of High Court decisions which determined that large-scale peat harvesting requires planning permission and licensing by the Environmental Protection Agency. The Working Group was tasked in particular with examining the potential of alternatives to peat for the horticultural industry.

Following on from the Chair’s report, officials in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, worked to develop a series of actions to address these important issues. Officials in my Department assisted in that process.

On 17th January, my colleague, Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has responsibility for Horticulture at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, published the series of actions developed to support Irish horticultural growers who are dependent on peat.

The Working Paper setting out the Series of Actions can be found at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/39315-working-paper-to-address-challenges-related-to-peat-supply-in-the-horticulture-sector/

The actions are being led by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which is the Department with responsibility for Horticulture. The range of actions in the series are those which, in the shared view of the Ministers for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Environment, Climate and Communications, inter alia, can reasonably, legally and practically be put in place to support the €469 million horticulture industry, the people employed and the many families that depend on this important sector.