A report has called for peat harvesting for the horticulture sector to resume in the short term, stating that two shiploads of peat would need to be imported to Ireland every month from next year for the horticulture sector under the current state of affairs.
The report, Review of the use of Peat Moss in Horticulture, was produced by a working group set up by Minister of State for heritage, Malcolm Noonan.
The group comprises relevant government departments, state bodies, environmental organisations and horticulture sector representatives.
Agriland understands that a copy of the finalised report has been sent to the minister, though it has not been formally published yet.
While the report says that the use of peat should be phased out by, at the latest, 2035, it also states that it is required in the short term, in many sectors, including retail and amenity; in the medium term, in professional horticulture until alternatives are available; and for the longer term, in the mushroom sector.
For that reason, the report recommends that Irish peat should be available over the short term in sufficient quantities from bogs that were prepared for harvesting for the last few years – providing amendments are made to the current legislative provisions for large scale extraction.
Some of this peat should be made available to the retail horticulture sector in the short term, the report finds.
It calls on the government to draft primary legislation in order to change the consent system for harvesting to bring it in line with other EU countries “as a matter of priority”.
In the meantime, the horticulture sector “needs to continue” to explore the ‘exempt development provisions’ for extraction under the current planning code to see if this may work as a solution to its needs in 2022.
These exemptions allow harvesting from already-worked bogs less than 30ha in size where drainage began before the year 2002.
However, the report stipulated that even if this solution is workable, it may not result in enough peat for the sector’s needs.
The report says that harvesting companies or “even a worker co-op” could harvest peat “only after new legislation and regulatory compliance is completed”.
It argues that increased investment in research “is needed immediately” on the potential for the use of alternatives to peat in the horticulture industry, with a view to having alternatives in use by the industry over the next five to 10 years.
The report stresses, though, that the extraction of peat should only be carried out to make up a shortfall in growing media and offset the importation of peat.
It calls on the horticulture sector to be “committed to the responsible sourcing of peat and remediation of the peat bogs after use”.