Mushroom growers in Cavan and Monaghan have found themselves in a "non-sensical" situation where they are importing peat to Ireland to grow their produce. Mushroom businesses have also had to rely on themselves by coming up with innovative ways to work around the peat shortage here caused by what one local representative calls a "planning debacle" at government level.
At present, peat cannot be harvested in Ireland but, mushroom businesses use it for growing their produce. Cavan-Monaghan TD Matt Carthy recently led a delegation from the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee to Cornacrieve Mushrooms in Emyvale, when they saw for themselves the new methods faremers are trying to get around the pear supply issue. "That innovation and imagination must be matched by government," Deputy Carthy said.
In particular, the TD called for the Minister of Agriculture to "find a solution" and "work with the industry" by addressing the peat crisis here and come up with solutions for the mushroom sector.
"So there needs to be a solution to the planning deadlock that would essentially allow a very limited amount of peat extracted," Deputy Carthy told Northern Sound, "Government needs to work with the industry to ensure that there is all efforts and supports put in place so we can find the alternatives to peat and what we need in the first instance, is for the Minister for agriculture to set out a road map in the Dáil as to how exactly he intends to address these issues and to resolve this crisis, which has been ongoing for a number of years."
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