Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture Matt Carthy has called on the government to “publish and act on” a report on horticultural report “immediately”.
A working group was set up by Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage Malcolm Noonan “to assist in addressing the important issues around horticultural peat for domestic purposes”.
The final report of the working group was received by the minister on October 20, and “the contents are now being considered carefully with a view to the matter being brought to government in early course”, he said in response to a parliamentary question from deputy Carthy.
The need for continued use of peat in the horticultural sector received widespread acknowledgement most prominently in September when it was reported that a shipments of 4,000t of peat were arriving in in Ireland from Latvia.
‘Crisis’ of importing horticultural peat
Deputy Carthy said that “government inaction and disinterest on this issue has created a crisis in the horticulture section”.
“Industries such as the mushroom sector will be lost to Ireland without urgent action,” he said.
“Minister of State Malcolm Noonan has had possession of this report for almost four weeks. He must publish it in full immediately, and he must act on it without delay.
“Minister Noonan cannot wish alternatives into being – and he cannot sit on this report even if he does not like its findings. It will require time and resources to develop those alternatives, but government inaction is distracting from that objective.
“The current legislative framework is not conducive to the continued extraction of this critical horticultural substrate meaning that new legislation is clearly required.”
The deputy said that the implications of failing to act “are stark”.
“The importation of peat will continue while thousands of jobs could be lost, particularly in the mushroom sector, resulting in the large-scale importation of horticulture produce that could and should be produced in Ireland,” he added.
“Government must publish the report of the working group that they established, and they must immediately act on it. If Minister of State Noonan refuses to do so then his senior Minister, Darragh O’Brien, must intervene.”