A TD has said that the vote against the proposed EU Nature Restoration Law in the European Parliament’s agriculture committee yesterday (Tuesday, May 23) is a “shot across the bows” of the proposal.
Independent TD Carol Nolan said that she welcomed the vote in the parliament’s committee against accepting the legislation.
The agriculture committee voted against the proposal yesterday by 30 votes to 16.
Reacting to the vote, Nolan said: “This is a rare victory for common sense and a clear shot across the bows against all those who want to prioritise an unworkable level of environmental ambition based on fantasy [over] farmers rights.
“We now need to see a similar level of pragmatic reassessment take place here in Ireland with respect to our own government’s hyper-unrealistic environmental targets.
“Hopefully the decision [by the committee] is the opening salvo in an urgently-needed reframing of the way in which the EU and member states do business when it comes to farmers’ incomes and security of food production,” the Laois-Offaly TD added.
The committee’s vote has been welcomed by several Irish TDs and MEPs.
Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus said the result occurred because farmer concerns were “not taken seriously”.
He said that there was “too much ambiguity” in the legislation on the impact it would have for family farmers.
MacManus said that nature restoration and protection had to take place, but that it “must be done correctly with the full participation and say of rural Irish communities and family farmers”.
“It really is a pity that certain sections of the European Commission and other stakeholders did not properly engage with those who have a clear understanding of rural communities, including Irish family farmers in the west and midlands of Ireland,” he commented.
“If they had done so, we would have had a Nature Restoration Law that would have been inclusive and unambiguous with realistic goals and measures,” he added.