Thousands of jobs will be lost in the horticulture sector if the government does not streamline the planning process for peat harvesting.
A court decision in 2019 ruled that peat harvesting required special permission, through An Bord Pleanala, then local authorities and after that, the EPA.
Pressure is mounting on the government after it was revealed that hundreds of tonnes of peat had been imported from Latvia to a processor on the Longford-Westmeath border, despite the company being unable to cut peat just metres from its processing plant in Rathowen.
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Managing Director of the company, Klasmann Deilman, Kevin Mahon was one of a number of protesters who took part in a demonstration at the Dail yesterday.
