Thousands of jobs at risk as peat harvesting restrictions create crisis in horticulture sector

Joint committee on agriculture to seek resolution

Peat harvesting restrictions means the horticulture sector is at crisis point. File Picture. 

A commitment from members of the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine to arrange an urgent meeting with the Departments of Agriculture, Environment and Housing to find an immediate resolution to the crisis engulfing Ireland’s horticultural sector, has been welcomed by Growing Media Ireland (GMI).

The commitment was made during a joint committee meeting recently when GMI, the representative group for the majority of horticultural peat and growing media producers in Ireland, warned that over 17,000 jobs across Ireland’s horticultural sector are at real risk of being lost over the coming months because of ongoing restrictions on peat harvesting.