Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Vice Chairman. As I do not know how much the director heard of what I said earlier, I will start again. My comments were based on the fact that Ireland is unique in respect of the amount of drained peatland we have in agricultural use compared with other areas. In my father’s time, the grant aid from the EU actually was to drain this land and consequently much of this land is now drained and in agricultural production. The targets now are that 70% of this would be restored and a large percentage of it would be rewetted.

Based on that and from Dr. Delgado Rosa’s presentation, I believe his second-last slide demonstrated the impact assessment but this assessment was basically on nature, habitats and what can be achieved. I would like to know what impact assessments, cost-benefit analyses or even stress testing may have been done in formulating the proposals with regard to farmers’ income but, more importantly, food security. Any measures being proposed from an Irish context in any regard would result in a reduction in food production. While we are in the midst of enormous population growth at the moment, where is the line drawn where we may have an issue with food security, how was food security considered in the proposals and what impact assessment might have been done in that regard?

I also note that while Dr. Delgado Rosa stated there will be financing, there is no detail on the financing at the moment. He mentioned in his presentation that he included the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. We all know that CAP was set up originally to ensure cheap, traceable, top quality food. It has since become almost an environmental scheme and these proposals are now highlighting CAP as one of the formats of compensation for a rewetting or nature restoration scheme. How will that affect food production from a cost perspective, irrespective of a quantity perspective, when it comes to food security and how much consideration has been given to all of these issues? What modelling had been done and where will the line be drawn, which will have to be negotiated, with regard to the European Union’s food security?