Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 July 2021
214. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will introduce a fair and workable licensing system to allow for the phasing out of horticultural peat harvesting while ensuring there is a secure supply of growing media in order that the sustainable horticultural sector is not jeopardised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37987/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraI consider the current consent system for peat extraction to be both fair and workable. Commercial peat extraction is subject to a dual consent process requiring planning permission and, for sites over 50 hectares, an Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) licence from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, there has been a history of widespread non-compliance with this dual consent process, with many operators in the sector lacking planning permission and / or an IPC licence.
Following a 2019 High Court judgment which re-affirmed, inter alia, that commercial peat extraction absent planning permission constitutes unauthorised development, the onus has been on operators to first regularise their activities via the planning system and then secure the necessary licenses before any recommencement can take place.
It is not open to the State to simply remove the requirement for operators to regularise their past unauthorised development, as this requirement is derived from EU law, and I believe the quickest route to regularisation is through engagement with the existing consent system rather than through the establishment of a new one.
Insofar as the availability of supplies for horticulture use is concerned, this matter is being considered by a multi-stakeholder working group established earlier this year by Malcolm Noonan T.D., Minister for Heritage and Electoral Reform in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. In addition, officials from my Department are engaging with their counterparts in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, to help identify all feasible options to support the supply of horticultural peat for the 2021 and 2022 seasons in particular.
