Ryan under fire as peat harvesting concerns grow in Longford
Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan has been accused of “total and utter greenwashing” of the midlands' horticultural sector.
Fine Gael Cllr Paul Ross said there needed to be an urgent review and introduction of a practicable licensing system in order to protect an industry already beset by rising food prices and loss of competitiveness.
“We need to provide a fast-track, one-stop-shop framework for planning and licensing for the harvesting of horticultural peat, as was recommended by The Just Transition Commissioner,” Cllr Ross told a recent county council meeting.
Cllr Ross' comments followed the Leader's revelations two weeks earlier of how almost 4,000 tonnes of peat arrived to a horticultural factory on the the Longford/Westmeath border.
“Such a ‘streamlined approach between Statutory Bodies’ would help prevent the absurdity of 200 truckloads of peat being imported from Latvia to be stockpiled on a bog just outside Legan and would instead allow the resumption of the responsible harvesting of peat moss here in Ireland, as it occurs elsewhere in Europe,” he said.
His party colleague Cllr Colm Murray backed those urgings.
He spoke of how he had routintely expressed the need for Ireland to look at alternative energy models, but that those replacements needed to be “viable and affordable” to consumers.
Council officials are now expected to write a letter to Mr Ryan's department outlining the views expressed by councillors Ross and Murray over the coming days.