An independent TD has claimed that a lot of Green Party TDs live in “nice suburbs” and don’t “respect” what farmers in rural Ireland do every day for biodiversity.
Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice believes there should be no compromise on the Nature Restoration Law, and Ireland and Irish MEPs should not support the proposal.
The proposed law to increase biodiversity will be voted on by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety in the European Parliament next week.
If the environment committee, which includes two Irish MEPs, votes against the law next Thursday (June 15), the proposal won’t go any further.
Commenting after a call by the Greens/European Free Alliance (EFA) party in the European Parliament to protect nature and support the law, the deputy said:
“A lot of [Green Party TDs] don’t even understand the consequences of rewetting drained agricultural peatland. Would they like their back garden and their house in Dublin flooded?
“Because that is the reality of drained agricultural peatland. Houses have been built on it but on top of that, a lot of families have been reared on that,” he said.
The deputy said that Irish farmers are “willing to put their shoulders to the wheel” in helping Ireland down the road to meet environmental targets which, he said, are “unattainable”.
Green Party
The Greens/EFA said that it had “enough of the nonsense arguments” that nature protection and food production cannot go together.
“Without nature, there’s no food […] Still some politicians claim that protecting nature will put food production at risk.
“They want us to believe that stronger laws to protect nature and climate will make food prices go up and farmers go out of business. They claim people will go hungry as a result.
“This is complete nonsense – and they know it,” the statement by the EFA, which has been signed by over 21,000 supporters so far, states.
The biggest threat to food security is climate change and ecosystem collapse, however, by working with nature, food production can be sustained and even increased, the party said.
“Only big agri-business and food companies profit from nature-destructive production methods. They rake in record profits while nature, farmers and fishers are suffering,” the party added.
Reacting to the Greens/EFA’s food security comments, the deputy said its focus should be on the “800 million trees that [are] being cut down in the Amazon, the lungs of the world”.
“Ireland accounts for less than a half of 1% of total emissions. Let them look at where problems are, not be picking on the mouse when the elephant is the main cause of it,” he said.