Three ministers have drawn the ire of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine by not accepting an invite for an upcoming meeting on the horticulture sector.
The meeting, believed to be set for March 2, would have been discussing the possibility of allowing the small-scale harvesting of peat for the sector, rather than relying on imports.
The meeting would have been attended by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue; Minister of State for heritage Malcolm Noonan; and Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan.
However, it is understood that none of these three will now be attending.
This evening (Tuesday, February 22), independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice accused the three ministers of “making a mockery” of the committee by “refusing to appear to discuss the pertinent issues facing the horticulture sector and the need for milled peat”.
Fitzmaurice claimed: “All have made varying excuses to stall or prevent the meeting. Minister McConalogue agreed to attend if the other two invitees attended; Minister Noonan said he would attend to discuss the matter under his brief; while Minister Ryan declared he was not available.”
He continued: “It appears as if this is an orchestrated effort by government ministers to delay or prevent a meeting of the agriculture committee going ahead, thus preventing any discussions around coming to a solution so peat could be milled for the horticulture industry.
“While the agriculture committee has no power to force these ministers to appear before it, it seems as if their responses were organised in order to hinder the meeting proceeding.
“People deserve to know the games that are going on in the world of politics. It is making a mockery of the agriculture committee and all of the good work it endeavours to do and would make you question if committees are worth sitting on anymore,” the Roscommon-Galway TD argued.
Meanwhile, committee chairperson and Fianna Fáil Tipperary TD Jackie Cahill, speaking to Agriland, said that he is “extremely disappointed” by the fact that the ministers will not be appearing.
According to Cahill, Minister Eamon Ryan had been the first to signal that he would not attend, with the other two apparently following suite.