There is no “quick fix” solution to the crisis facing Ireland’s horticultural peat sector, Growing Media Ireland (GMI) has warned.
This crisis is placing 17,000 jobs in the midlands and west in immediate danger – and risks a national shortage of horticultural peat by September, the organisation has stressed.
GMI’s warning follows a statement by Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Pippa Hackett last week, who indicated that “a stock of Irish peat which will alleviate the immediate issue may have been secured”.
Following a September 2019 High Court ruling, harvesting of peat from Irish bogs greater than 30ha “now requires navigating a complex licencing and planning regime – which has resulted in horticultural peat harvesting all but ceasing”, GMI warns.
A meeting is to take place this evening (Tuesday, July 20) between the Departments of Agriculture, Environment and Housing and the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine to discuss the impact that a shortage of horticultural peat will have on the wider horticultural sector.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, John Neenan, chairman of GMI, said:
“The stockpile of peat Minister [Hackett] refers to is not large enough to meet demand in the short-term and is totally unsuitable for some crops such as mushrooms.
“The introduction of small-scale harvesting will also be insufficient to meet demand.
“Research into peat alternatives may indeed find viable solutions in the decades to come – but the current Irish stockpile will be exhausted by September.
“Our sector will then be forced to import peat into Ireland from Eastern Europe or alternatives from Asia at a higher cost both financially and environmentally, assuming adequate quantities can actually be sourced.
“The only workable solution is an immediate lifting of restrictions on peat harvesting for 2021 to avoid a shortage this year and in 2022,” Neenan stresseed.
“GMI hopes today’s meeting of the three departments and the agriculture committee will focus on achieving a long-term viable solution for the sector – not quick fixes designed to cover the departments’ inaction of the past 18 months,” the chairman concluded.