The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action has been told that a full impact assessment is needed for the EU Nature Restoration Law.
Addressing the committee, Paul O’Brien, the Environment Committee chairperson of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) said that the proposed rewetting and restoration measures for peatlands “must not have a detrimental effect on Irish agriculture and rural Ireland”.
O’Brien warned that the regulation “has the potential to remove significant areas of land from agricultural production”.
The proposed Nature Restoration Law would set specific legally binding targets and obligations for nature restoration across at least 20% of the EU’s land area, which would include forests and agricultural land.
The proposed regulation allows for Ireland to include areas of peat extraction sites to achieve these targets, as well as drained peatlands under land uses other than agriculture, such as forestry, up to maximum of 20% of the overall national target.
Ireland’s National Inventory Report 2022 estimates that there are 330,000ha of drained grassland on organic peat soils.
O’Brien said: “Under the proposals, the potential impact on drained agricultural land would be to restore 100,000ha of this drained grassland by 2030, increasing to 231,000ha by 2050. This represents 7% of the utilisable agriculture area under grassland.
“The lack of clarity with regard to what is meant by ‘restore’ or ‘satisfactory levels’, as well as the potential impact on farmland and production, is a source of serious concern for farmers and rural communities, particularly in the midlands and west, where this soil type is more prevalent.”
O’Brien told the committee that the change in policies will have a direct impact on demand for land, which is currently already being experienced through the Nitrates Action Programme (NAP).
“This has led to a disproportionate impact on the more financially vulnerable sectors, such as tillage, as they cannot compete and justify paying the higher rental prices,” the IFA environment chair commented.
He added: “This is contrary to government policy under the Climate Action Plan which proposes to increase the area under tillage.”
O’Brien stressed the need to the Oireachtas climate committee for a full economic impact assessment “in order to measure the far-reaching consequences for Irish agriculture”.
“It is vital that a full impact assessment is undertaken to quantify the area of farmland that will be affected to ensure the proposed targets are realistic and fair and are not detrimental to the continuity of farming in Ireland,” he said.
O’Brien added: “This will provide an estimation of the economic impact and social burden of the restoration measures, as well as the cost compliance.”