The final report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss is “a roadmap to rural and agricultural ruin”, an Independent TD has claimed.
The document, launched yesterday (Wednesday, April 5), includes 159 recommendations calling for greater enforcement and implementation of existing laws and policies to protect the natural environment, of which 17 are specific to agriculture.
The assembly recommends the introduction of new sector-specific levies or charges on agricultural exports with these funds ring-fenced for biodiversity.
The group also called on the government to “phase out all environmentally harmful subsidies in the agricultural and food sector”.
The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan said that some of the recommendations could actually be counter-productive to the overall objective of protecting biodiversity.
The assembly, made up of 99 randomly selected members of the public, has been deliberating since last May and has heard from more than 80 different speakers, including farm organisations, and received 650 submissions from across Ireland and internationally.
Report
Independent TD Carol Nolan has slammed a number of the recommendations which, if accepted, she said would lead to additional costs for the agricultural sector.
“It is clear from even a cursory reading of this report that attempts are being made to consolidate and normalise an essentially elitist form of environmental extremism.
“The report is also just plain bogus with a number of its presuppositions barely reflecting rural reality at all,” Nolan claimed.
The Laois-Offaly TD said that farmers are “already moving heaven and earth to be environmentally compliant” and in the vast majority of cases are doing more than all of the environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) combined.
“Yet what does this report recommend? More financial support for eco NGO’s but also more levies and fines for farmers and agri-exports. It would be laughable if it were not so dangerously absurd,” she said.
“This report reads like a wish list of punitive recommendations dressed up in the fuzzy and childish language of those who haven’t a clue about what it takes to keep a financially stable agriculture sector going.
“God help rural Ireland and Irish agriculture if this report is ever reflected in law, or if its recommendations become legally binding,” Deputy Nolan added.