Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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1766. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for an update on the National Peatlands Strategy commitment to undertake sphagnum moss cultivation trials, and the publication of said trials; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46075/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The National Peatlands Strategy is under the Remit of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Sphagnum farming has the potential to provide a partial peat alternative, restore raised bog ecosystems and sequester carbon. However, there is still a lot of research to be done in Ireland to explore its potential.

In line with this, my Department is funding the ‘Beyond Peat’ project, a five-year research project that began in 2021 and is aiming to identify potential peat alternatives for Irish horticulture. ‘Beyond Peat’ will assess current, available alternative growth and casing materials across five key sub-sectors of horticulture while also developing advanced growth media utilising new technologies to transform organic wastes into materials with favourable physical characteristics for plant and mushroom performance.

Indeed, my Department also provides funding to the Peatlands and People LIFE Integrated Project (IP), which supports the planting of Spaghnum through Bord na Mona (BnM). BnM are continuing to plant Sphagnum moss on peatlands formerly used for industrial peat extraction that have been re-wetted. The rehabilitation/rewetting is part of BnM’s Peatland Climate Action Scheme (PCAS). The main objective is to speed up the colonisation of bare peat bogs with several Sphagnum moss species. The Peatlands and People LIFE IP expects to reach over two million Sphagnum plugs planted by the end of 2025.

A large EU funded paludiculture project has recently begun and will run to 2029. Funded from Horizon Europe, the ‘Palus Demos’ project is coordinated and led by the University of Galway and involves UCD, FH Media, BnM, Abhain Beo, Growing Media Ireland, Forum Connemara and Peatland Finance Ireland, along with partners from four other countries. It received €10million funding from Horizon Europe. (palusdemos.org/about-us/, cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101182338).

This large body of work will contribute to the outputs of the National Peatland Strategy.