Farmers are on their “bended knees” and there has been a “complete sellout of agriculture” by successive governments, according to the Independent TD for Cork South West.
Deputy Michael Collins also attacked the current coalition government’s record on agriculture during a Dáil debate on the proposed European Union Nature Restoration Law and slammed what he described as the “ludicrous plan to wet our lands”.
“The government sold the fisheries and is on the verge of selling the Irish farmer. It will never be forgotten for what it is doing,” he stated.
The three ministers at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) came in for heavy criticism as they made statements to the Dáil on the Nature Restoration Law yesterday (Wednesday, May 31).
The law proposes legally binding targets for restoration of “drained organic soils under agricultural management, a proportion of which must be achieved through rewetting”.
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue told the Dáil that “rewetting is one of many tools to meet our restoration commitments” and has previously stressed that rewetting will not be mandatory for farmers.
Farmers’ concerns
However during the debate a number of TDs highlighted the concerns that farmers have voiced about the proposed law.
The Independent TD for Laois Offaly, Carol Nolan, called on the government “to make it absolutely clear” what Ireland’s policy position is on the issue.
Deputy Nolan told the Dáil that farmers had “well founded concerns”.
She said there had been an “arrogant and dismissive approach” at European Union level in relation to the Nature Restoration Law.
Deputy Nolan said that the EU had “simply ignored the clear concerns that farmers and farmer representative bodies have been articulating for some time including around the voluntary or mandatory nature of targets and financial supports.”
While the Tipperary TD, Mattie McGrath, said farmers “wanted to be left alone to look after the land they have nurtured and cared for for decades and generations”.
The Clare TD, Michael McNamara, also warned that the “treatment” of farmers in the Burren Life Scheme and Hen Harrier Project was undermining confidence in the Nature Restoration Law proposal.
Deputy McNamara claimed the government had failed to provide “promised compensation” to farmers in the Burren and Hen Harrier Areas which he said would mean that farmers believe the proposal will be “punitive and they will bear the brunt of it”.
He told the Dáil: “If the minister wants farmers to go along with him and have any shred of confidence in what he and what the European Commission says to them, the government must adhere to what he said he would do, compensate farmers for being designated and stop the double talk”.