Last week, a ship carrying approximately 3600 tonnes of peat from Latvia docked at the port of Drogheda, report the media on the Emerald Isle. This has sparked a major storm of outrage in the horticultural sector, whose representatives describe the situation as “completely unacceptable” and absurd.

Tensions between gardeners and the government have persisted since 2019, when the Irish High Court ruled that commercial peat production must cease. Responding to an action by the Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) group, the court found that the legal aspects of the regulations governing commercial production did not comply with the European directive on environmental impact assessment. The government established a special commission tasked with finding a solution to this situation, and its report is expected at the end of this month.
The government's position is set out in a document in which peatlands are now ranked among the world's most important ecosystems with a critical capacity to capture and store carbon, thereby helping to regulate the climate.
Shipping in peat contradicts generations of history and traditions of peat extraction, which were commercialised in the 20th century by the state-owned company Bord na Móna.