The use of peat in the horticulture sector may be allowed to continue to a “maximum target date of 2035”, the Minister with responsibility for the area will tell an Oireachtas Committee on Tuesday.
Malcolm Noonan, a Green Party TD and Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, has said a working group he commissioned is in general agreement that “peat for the professional horticulture sector should be available till a target date of 2030 and a maximum target date of 2035, with the amount of peat being used by the sector being phased out over that time”.
There would be strict monitoring of the reduction by an independent body and the speed of the reduction would depend on the success of research into peat alternatives.
Mr Noonan’s opening statement to the Committee on Agriculture does not say if the peat would be harvested Irish peat or peat imported from other countries.
The horticultural and mushroom-growing sectors have said they have been thrown into crisis by the sudden cessation of peat production by Bord na Móna. The semi-State company announced its decision after a 2019 High Court ruling that peat harvesting, on peatlands over 30 hectares, required planning permission.
Exploring alternatives
Earlier this year, Mr Noonan set up a working group under an independent chairman, Dr Munoo Prasad, to examine the current situation in the horticultural industry and also to explore the potential of alternatives to the use of peat in the industry.
While it is official Government policy to preserve and restore Irish bogs – because of their biodiversity value and their capacity to be carbon sinks – Mr Noonan has said before he recognised the challenges the end of peat production by Bord na Móna has presented to the horticulture producers and mushroom producers.
Those sectors have argued that the alternatives to peat that have been suggested are currently inferior, or have been insufficiently developed.
Mr Noonan will tell the committee, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill, that Dr Prasad’s working group will focus on the potential of alternatives to the use of peat in the horticultural industry.
With the stockpiles of harvested peat rapidly diminishing, the first large shipment of imported horticultural and mushroom peat occurred this week.
