Nursery owner says jobs at risk in horticulture industry

One of Ireland’s leading nursery owners has contended that thousands of jobs are at risk in the Irish horticulture industry due to shortage of peat production.

Larry Doran of Doran Nurseries in Timahoe, Co. Kildare, said that the Irish horticulture community had been thrown into crisis with fears that Bord na Móna will be unable to supply any peat for next year’s growing season.

“Bord na Mona previously assured the growers that they had enough stockpiled peat and compost allocated to get them through the next growing season.

“However, the nursery industry got confirmation on Friday, December 11, following a high-level meeting with the president of the IFA [Irish Farmers’ Association], Tim Cullinan and CEO of Bord na Móna, Tom Donnellan, that there will not be any peat available to the nursery industry from March,” he said.

“The remaining allocation is being diverted for packing in domestic garden compost for the Irish and being exported to the UK market. 500,000m² of suitable peat is being stored in close proximity to Edenderry power plant and there is a suspicion that this is earmarked for burning for power generation,” Larry contended.

“Peat is the essential growing medium that all growers use to produce their crops. Although an essential raw material for plant growth, the industry typically only uses 1% of Ireland’s annual peat harvest,” he said.

‘Gross irony’

“The twin concerns of pollution from peat burning and loss of biodiversity and habitat, has led to a complete cessation of peat harvesting since June 2020 due to legal and political challenges. The gross irony of this decision is collapsing the very industry that helps sustain Ireland’s biodiversity,” Larry said.

“Nursery stock growers primarily located close to the midland bogs – Bog of Allen – produce millions of plants per annum that have a very positive contribution to our environment, with Co2 absorbed and biodiversity.

“Nurseries will be forced to import growing material from the Balkans or Malaysia, 2,300km and 10,000km from our shores respectively. This will have a compounding detrimental effect on the environment as we as a people strive to keep our obligations to the Paris Agreement,” he contended.

“There is an epidemic failure within the government to understand the issues facing the environment and impact of short-term objectives and poor decisions on the entire horticulture industry.

It appears that this locally based longstanding and successful industry has been an unintended casualty of the environmental challenges that the country is facing. One of the gems of Ireland’s environmental battle is seriously threatened, by becoming the victim of the environmental war it is helping to fight.

“Time is critical. This is vitally urgent. To be clear, there are two distinct issues here: