Independent TD for Cork south-west, Michael Collins and his colleagues in the Rural Independent Group have demanded an “emergency” Dáil debate on the EU’s proposed Nature Restoration Law.
After months of negotiations between the European Commission and EU member states, Deputy Collins said it is “crucial” to urgently address the matter on the floor of the Dáil.
Proposals by the European Commission to rewet land could “spell doom for thousands” of Irish farmers and “cripple” Ireland’s agricultural sector, the deputy said.
Under the proposed law, member states will be required to develop a national restoration plan and identify measures that together cover at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea area by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.
“This law includes provisions for mandatory rewetting of 45,000ha of Ireland’s drained farmed peatlands by 2030; 100,000ha by 2040; and 140,000ha by 2050, primarily in the midlands and the west of Ireland,” Deputy Collins said.
Speaking from Cork south west today (Friday, May 19), the deputy leader of the Rural Independent Group, Deputy Collins said:
“Legally binding land rewetting policy proposals, supported by the government, would destroy many Irish farms and undo over a hundred years of painstaking work and effort by generations of Irish farm families.
“That is why we are demanding the allocation of time next week or the following week for a forceful emergency debate in the Dáil to address these critical issues that the government shamelessly chooses to ignore.”
The deputy claimed that “instead of safeguarding our agricultural sector”, the government “blindly follows the agenda of the Green Party, sacrificing the welfare of our farm families”.
Nature Restoration Law
“The government’s unwavering endorsement of the mandatory rewetting targets proposed under this law reveals a shocking disregard for the wellbeing of our hard-working farming community,” he said.
Describing Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan as the “main cheerleader” for the proposals at EU level, Deputy Collins said the debate should take place ahead of the next EU Environment Council meeting on June 20.
At the council meeting a common position on the legislation is expected to be agreed, the deputy said, while the European Parliament will finalise its own position by the end of July.
“It is disingenuous for the government to claim support for agriculture while callously advancing a law that goes far beyond anything ever proposed at a national level.
“Rewetting of bogland may have been part of the Green Party’s manifesto, but it is inconceivable that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbench TDs would abandon the principles they once stood for, allowing this unjust EU law to trample upon our national sovereignty.
“Failure to act swiftly and decisively in scheduling this emergency debate would only validate the perception that the government is complicit in these damaging agricultural policies,” Deputy Collins said.