Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 February 2022
91. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the engagements he had with stakeholders that informed the contribution of his Department to the working paper to address challenges related to peat supply in the horticulture sector. [10362/22]
View answerI want to ask the Minister about the peat extraction situation, particularly for the horticultural industry. The horticulture industry in Ireland is worth almost €500 million and employs more than 12,000 people and yet they have an issue where the growing medium, which they require to have and sustain this industry, is under serious threat. There was a report from the working group but the Government's action plan does not seem to match it practically. The key issues in it are not in the action plan that is coming forward. This critical situation needs to be resolved as quickly as possible.
My Department engaged with all stakeholders through the deliberations of the working group on the use of peat moss in the horticultural industry. In addition, on foot of a request for direct discussions with my Department, my officials met with representatives of the professional horticulture sector, including the mushroom sector, to discuss the legal position regarding peat extraction and the impacts on the horticulture sector of the diminishing supply of peat.
As part of that discussion, the question of a guidance document regarding the regulatory requirements for peat extraction was raised. Guidance along such lines was subsequently commissioned by my Department and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, as referenced in the working paper, which is available on gov.ie. My officials have also been engaging regularly with their counterparts in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I should say that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has taken a real lead recently, which is appropriate because the horticulture industry is obviously central to its functions.
I believe the Department is now working effectively with local groups around the country to identify sites that could be developed for use in the industry. It has to be within European environmental regulations and rules. We can no longer continue with a system whereby peat is extracted but is not recorded, the environmental conditions are being breached or we are in breach of what we committed to under the functions of the treaties of the European Union. I believe that can be done. We will have to devise a mechanism to wean ourselves off the use of peat in the medium term. In the short term, I am confident that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, working with the horticulture and peat industry, will be able to find material that we can use in a sustainable, legal and environmentally correct way.
I am aware of the work that has been done. I know the recommendation here is that it should involve pieces of bog that are less than 30 ha. The difficulty when applications are going in is that when there are non-adjacent plots, they are putting them all in as one and saying that they are connected underground. There are serious issues here.
At the moment, the application process that is in place will take up to six years between having to go through the EPA process, the planning process and possible judicial reviews, etc. It simply will not work. There is recognition by everyone in the industry, from the people who provide the peat and from the industry in the horticultural sector that requires the peat. This is also particularly the case for the mushroom industry, which is one of the key industries that is suffering most because of this.
There needs to be legislation to change those requirements. That is one of the key recommendations that came from the working group, but the Government has failed to recognise it or to put it in place. That was supposed to happen before the end of last year. Will the Minister commit to work with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to ensure such legislation will be put in place as quickly as possible?
I rarely disagree with Deputy Kenny. I find that he speaks a great deal of sense in this House. However, in this instance, I have to disagree with him. In this instance, we have seen the benefits of a judicial review process, which pointed out that what we were doing was completely illegal. I do not believe any attempt to change legislation that would unwind our commitments under the European directives would be appropriate. We would find ourselves straight back in the European Court of Justice, and rightly so. People would say that Ireland cannot try to work around environmental protection by setting up legislation which is not in compliance with European law. I believe we are far better than that. I do not believe it will take six years, but it is appropriate. Everyone recognises now that we will have to go through the dual consenting process and that we will have to do it properly. I believe we will be able to find peat for our horticultural industry. We will not be able to find it for the massive exporting of peat, which has been going on in an unregulated and, effectively, illegal manner. That has to stop.
I am not suggesting it should be a free-for-all. Everyone knows that the practice in the past did not work, should not work and cannot continue. That is beyond what we are talking about here. Really, what we are talking about here is an emergency situation. The people who want to provide the peat, as well as the people who need the peat, are being prohibited from doing so by the strict adherence to this particular legislation. The Minister needs to come up with a solution and to be solution-driven. It is inappropriate to suggest that somehow or other it will simply not be allowed to happen. There are too many jobs at risk here. We cannot allow that to happen. I think Deputy Carthy wants to come in.
I welcome the fact that the Minister is here to answer this question, because for far too long this has been fobbed off to a Minister of State. There has not been the serious intervention that is required at Cabinet level. This whole process has been marked by delays, as has been mentioned. The Government set up an expert working group to examine these issues. The length of time the working group took, as well as the length of time the Government then took to deliberate on its findings, was excessive in my view. As Deputy Kenny has said, the Minister has ignored some of the central findings of that working group. Essentially, we need to ensure we end the practice of exporting peat from Ireland. That was a scandal. It should never have been allowed to happen. However, it should be noted that the chief culprit in that was a State-owned company which exported with the approval of the Government. We also have to stop the scandal of the importation of peat coming from places where we have no say whatsoever about the environmental regulations overseeing that process. We can do that by allowing the limited extraction of peat, in order to service our domestic horticulture and mushroom sector in particular.
I agree.
Will the Minister step up to the plate?
Just for clarity, what I hear Sinn Féin say is that we should not adhere to environmental law----
That is not what we are saying and the Minister knows it.
Please let the Minister respond.
That is what I hear. I do not believe that would serve the interests of the horticulture industry or this country. For too long we have turned a blind eye to environmental regulations. For too long we have said, “Ah, sure, no one will notice” or, “We will sort that out some other time”.
The Minister is purposely deflecting. Nobody is suggesting that we should be in breach of environmental law.
I believe-----
Please will the Deputy let the Minister respond?
That is what I heard. We can and we will. We need a horticultural industry. It is very important that we protect those jobs. It is very important that we find alternative solutions. I am confident that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which has key responsibility in this area, will be able to find the peat stocks which we can use in the interim period with adherence to environmental law to be able to see that industry through a transition period. It has to be just transition, but we will not succeed if we turn a blind eye and think we are immune to European environmental regulations. That would not serve anyone’s interests.
The Minister is deluded.
