The chairperson of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Jackie Cahill, says he has written to Taoiseach Micheál Martin to highlight his “pressing concerns” for the future of the horticulture, mushroom and nursery sectors in Ireland.
Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill confirmed this afternoon (Wednesday, July 21) that he was writing the letter on foot of a committee meeting yesterday in which officials from various departments attended to discuss the ban on peat harvesting in Ireland and the resulting importation of peat.
The committee meeting was attended by officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine; the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications; and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
In his communication to the Taoiseach, Cahill wrote that the current peat importation policy is “achieving nothing in the battle against climate change as peat is still being harvested elsewhere and then shipped across the continent”.
“All this is going to do is force industries to relocate out of this country, resulting in the loss of economic activity and jobs in rural Ireland,” Cahill warned.
Cahill said he had been “horrified” by comments made by the officials in yesterday’s meeting.
In the course of the meeting, an official had, according to the Tipperary TD, stated that the importation of peat will have to remain part of the solution to peat shortage nationally.
In response, Cahill said: “To concede that importation is part of the solution here is absolutely inexcusable from a department official. I’m horrified to say that we are going to concede that we can’t produce peat here for organic industries.
“You better go back to the blackboard because what you’re saying here today is not a solution. I know we have to go back to our ministers and back to the ministers we will be going. What we are hearing here today is totally unacceptable,” Cahill had remarked.
The TD has pressed the Taoiseach to intervene as a matter of “absolute priority as the country approaches the eleventh hour on this issue”.