Greens should have seen the iceberg coming with CETA, writes @aoifegracemoore

Well there’s another one right behind it...

The govt is rushing through a Bill today that could help restart industrial peat extraction during a climate & biodiversity emergency. THREAD

Peat companies in were counting on the ‘substitute consent’ system as their escape hatch when they were told by the High Court they all needed planning permission.

That was until the Supreme Court effectively struck down the substitute consent system over the summer: https://twitter.com/andrewlrjackson/status/1331606646292946945

Earlier this month, as part of a witches-brew of a Bill covering residential tenancies & Covid-19, the govt introduced provisions to revise the substitute consent system to address the Supreme Court’s judgment. With very little time for scrutiny...

30 Nov 16 Dec!

Dept officials were asked to appear before an Oireachtas Committee to explain the late changes to the Bill.

Here are the key paras.

So the rush to introduce these ‘technical’ amendments is 1st justified on the basis of sorting out Derrybrien & ending €15k per day EU fines. OK.

But take a closer look at para 20. All very euphemistic. Could be replaced with “BIG PEAT & QUARRIES!”

The big peat companies have not been able to extract peat in 2020 because they don’t have planning permission. And they can’t get planning unless & until they have substitute consent. And there’s no functioning substitute consent system. So the govt is rushing this through...

“What are the ‘exceptional circumstances’ that wld justify regularising the affairs of peat companies that have operated unlawfully without permission for years?” I hear you cry.

“Don’t the ‘exceptional circumstances’ - climate & ecological breakdown - all point the other way?!”

Maybe An Bord Pleanála will in due course turn down all the peat companies’ applications for substitute consent for this reason - time will tell! But there’s of course no guarantee of this.

The UK’s Committee on Climate Change recently proposed banning all peat extraction in the UK by 2023 & banning the sale of peat for horticultural use given that 2/3rds is imported, “mainly from ”.

This is where the debate is at in the UK in Nov 2020 - the UK’s decisions will inevitably impact us given that we supply so much of their market:

“An outright ban on using peat across the UK is needed” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/nov/17/uk-full-peat-compost-ban-england

Surely the govt should be planning *now* for a full wind-down of the peat industry and an orderly just transition.

Not rushing now, with minimal scrutiny, to facilitate applications for damaging extraction & then later reacting (late) to inevitable developments elsewhere.

This will need to include looking at the sustainability of parts of our horticultural industry and the urgent need for sustainable peat alternatives as growing & casing media. END/ https://kildare-nationalist.ie/2020/12/16/kildare-jobs-at-risk-as-peat-shortage-crisis-threaten-the-very-existence-of-irish-nursery-and-horticultural-industry/