Dr. Humberto Delgado Rosa:

Before addressing the issue of the specific CAP plan I want to mention that there are at least a couple of Irish LIFE-funded projects that are rather successful. These include rewetting peatland, including 10,000 ha of peatland in the Irish midlands where production is maintained. When I say I do not know, I mean I do not know the exact situation of each farm or each tract of land in Ireland or elsewhere. What I am saying is that in some cases production is compatible, in other cases production will have to be changed and in other cases again, depending on the choices of member states, production could even be stopped from fully rewetting. In such a case it would be to address the benefits to the climate from other perspectives.

With regard to the CAP fund, in Ireland's case as far as I know the plan proposes the GAEC protection of wetlands and peatland to be applicable from 2024 onwards. This is the lead time required to define and map these areas. Ireland will set applicable practices for the standard and there are CAP strategic plan amendments. This is the understanding we have with Ireland. The approved plan already includes some examples of appropriate minimum standards to be applied. They include a ban on ploughing or the use of minimum till or no till cultivation techniques. As I said, wetland and peatland restoration is already tackled to a certain extent in the Irish CAP strategic plan. As far as I am informed, and as I have said previously, Irish targets already consider nature with regard to restoration and I hope the CAP strategic plan-----