Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

464. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the engagements he has had with his Cabinet colleagues regarding the extraction of horticultural peat for use in the domestic mushroom sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43233/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have neither statutory nor Ministerial responsibility for the harvesting of peat for use in horticulture. However, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications and my Department have worked together to address matters relating to horticultural peat extraction, in particularly for use in the horticultural sector in Ireland.

Following a series of High Court decisions which determined that large-scale peat harvesting requires planning permission and licensing by the Environmental Protection Agency, Malcolm Noonan TD Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform established the Working Group on the Use of Peat Moss in the Horticultural Industry. The Working Group, which comprised representatives from relevant Government Departments, State Bodies, Environmental Non-Government Organisations and the industry was tasked in particular with examining the potential of alternatives to peat for the horticultural industry. The Final Report of the Working Group published in 2021 can be found at the following link:

In 2022, following engagement between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications and my Department a Working Paper to address challenges related to peat supply in the Horticulture Sector was published. This set out a series of actions to support Irish horticultural growers who are dependent on peat. It can be found at the following link:

In addition to this, a guidance document on the regulatory framework for peat extraction has been published by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and the National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department. The guide can be found at the following link: