Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the proposed nature restoration regulation here today and in particular on how it interacts with agriculture. I have seen some commentary both inside and outside this House in recent weeks. There has been a real attempt in some quarters to create fear and concern among farmers. I am here today to spell out the facts as they are, the current state of play and how I am working to protect our farm families while meeting our responsibilities to protect our environment and biodiversity. I recognise this is an emotive issue for many but it is not helpful to peddle fear with rumour, hearsay and innuendo. Facts are the only things that matter here.

As Deputies will know the lead Department for Ireland's engagement on the proposed regulation is the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I am working closely with this Department and I am taking a leading role at European level with the Council of Agriculture Ministers where along with my EU colleagues we are making headway in ensuring the law is workable for our farmers and land type.

To set out the context of my statement, I want to start by outlining some facts. As we know, this House declared a biodiversity crisis in 2019. Research published just last week shows that almost half of the species on earth are in population decline. Despite long-standing environmental legislation in Europe and Ireland, these losses continue. It is in this context that the European Commission has drafted its proposals for a nature restoration regulation.

Our farmers and fishers have always been, and continue to be, custodians of our environment. It is important to recognise the great work done by these farmers and fishermen in recent years to support biodiversity objectives. Nobody has a greater role in protecting and enhancing our environment than our farmers and fishers. They see the realities of climate change first-hand and its impacts on the everyday running of their businesses.

There has been a realisation by everyone in society in recent times that our nature and biodiversity is under pressure and in decline. What many thought was highly robust has proven to be more fragile. We have just one nature and we must protect it. It is the basis of everything we do as a sector and a society. Farmers are absolutely leading from the front on this ambition. The evidence is real and tangible. Let us consider the recent engagement by farmers, with 46,000 applying to join the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, our flagship €1.5 billion environmental scheme. With thanks to my Cabinet colleagues, I was able to approve entry to the scheme for these farmers, all of whom are implementing biodiversity actions on their farms. To put this in context, almost half a million individual trees will be planted by these farmers during the contract period. A further 2,000 km of hedging will be planted. Over 11,000 owl boxes have been installed and 270,000 ha of commonage is being managed correctly for biodiversity. These are only a few of the actions committed to by farmers under their ACRES plans.

Another example of farmers’ engagement is the Burren scheme, funded by my Department for many years and as an EU LIFE project, recognised as best in class across the EU for its approach to working with farmers to conserve and promote biodiversity. This approach, one of payment for results and working collaboratively with farmers, has formed the basis of a significant move to results-based, collective actions by farmers within ACRES. We are at the forefront of Europe in this approach to agri-environment schemes. I am deeply committed to the approach of working with and supporting farmers. I believe this is evidence of farmers being very much engaged with biodiversity. These actions show that farmers are actively supportive of nature restoration.

However, it is clear that farmers and fishers are concerned at the potential impact of the regulation on their livelihoods, and on how they will farm and fish in the future. That is something we must recognise and work with. It is something that I have prioritised in my engagement across government and with the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan.

The proposed regulation is one of the most extensive regulations to come from the EU and will impact across all of society, not just agriculture. The headline ambition of the regulation is to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. It proposes targets for restoration across a wide range of land uses, including rural and urban environments, rivers, forests, peatlands, wetlands, marine and all its activities. Leadership is an important element here, something I will refer to again later.

The proposed regulation will also build on existing national and EU strategies and policies which support environmental sustainability in Ireland, including the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and Food Vision 2030. Three of the nine specific objectives for the current Common Agricultural Policy focus on the environment and climate. Food Vision 2030 focuses on the three pillars of sustainability in the agrifood sector - economic, environmental and social sustainability. Each of these pillars is equally important. Along with our CAP strategic plan, this strategy supports the delivery of the ambition of the proposed regulation by engaging primary producers in sustainable food systems and the delivery of ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, reduction of emissions and support for biodiversity.

Since the publication of the European Commission’s proposal in June 2022, my Department has been working closely with colleagues in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage who are leading co-ordination of Ireland’s position on the proposed nature restoration regulation. We are also working closely with other Departments across government to analyse what the proposal means for Ireland, to identify potential challenges and to contribute meaningfully to the Council discussions on this matter. The proposals have evolved at pace in the Council.

I have taken a leadership role in Europe with my ministerial colleagues to make sure the regulations can work from an Irish point of view. The proposed text is subject to continual evolution. This evolution has been important and necessary. We have worked to ensure that the EU Council has taken account of the Irish situation. I now expect our MEPs to work hard to bring the European Parliament position much closer to that of the Council.

Article 9 in the proposal focuses on agricultural ecosystems, introducing targets for increasing trends of farmland bird populations, grassland butterflies, stocks of organic carbon in mineral soils and high-diversity landscape features. Ireland is already delivering action towards these objectives. For example, under the CAP, we are incentivising increasing cover of high-diversity landscape features through several interventions. In simple terms, hedges and space for nature are being recognised and rewarded through what is called an eco-scheme payment and we know that we have a high percentage of this area on Irish farms through our hedges and scrub areas. Farmers no longer need to reduce scrub areas to maximise payments under farm supports.

Article 9(4) proposes legally binding targets for restoration of drained organic soils under agricultural management, a proportion of which must be achieved through rewetting. This target has received significant attention in recent weeks. The current Council proposals set the following minimum targets for restoration of drained peatland soils under agricultural management: 30% of such areas by 2030, of which at least a quarter must be rewetted; 40% by 2040, of which at least half must be rewetted; and 50% by 2050, of which at least half must be rewetted. For Ireland, based on current estimates, this would set a 2050 requirement to restore just over 166,000 ha with just over 83,000 ha of this to be specifically restored through rewetting techniques. The flexibilities I fought for within the Council’s proposal allow for delivery of this ambition on land under a variety of current uses, and not just agricultural areas. Restoration can take many forms and this will be further expanded in our national restoration plan.

Rewetting is one of many tools to meet our restoration commitments. Under the Council proposals for the regulation, the extent of rewetting required would be at the member state’s discretion. This provides significant flexibility and, when combined with provisions to include peat extraction areas and other land use areas in the restoration accounting, it means that under the Council’s proposals Irish agricultural production is not expected to be significantly adversely affected, with State lands available to contribute almost all of this commitment. Further to this, nationally, Ireland has already set peatland restoration targets in our Climate Action Plan 2023 and has shown ambition to achieve targets beyond the minimums outlined in the Council’s proposals for the nature restoration regulation. The Climate Action Plan has committed to rehabilitation of 77,000 ha of Bord na Móna lands by 2030. Combined with action already committed under EU LIFE programmes, our CAP plan and other existing initiatives, this will achieve the restoration ambition for 2030 without the need for any new incentives.

Significantly, the European Council has proposed to incorporate a stepwise approach to the delivery of the 2050 and interim targets under the proposed regulation. This is an important element which Ireland has supported in the Council working party meetings.

Such an approach will allow member states, including Ireland, to review progress at regular intervals with the opportunity to revise delivery mechanisms based on advances in scientific and technical knowledge and experiences from implementation. The value of this approach is that, although the proposed regulation sets ambitions for 25 years in the future, it does not tie Ireland to plans developed at a single point in time. It would enshrine within the legal text the flexibility for member states to adjust and amend their approaches as our environmental, economic and societal demands evolve. This approach would allow Ireland to use additional findings from national research and engagement to inform the mid- and long-term delivery of the ambitions in the proposed regulation.

I must stress that regardless of the final adopted version of the nature restoration regulation, the obligations to deliver are with the member state, not individuals. Following the adoption of the regulation, Ireland and all EU member states will have two years to develop a national restoration plan. The process of developing a national plan must and will be with farmers and fishers at the centre of this discussion. With this in mind, the Irish Government will, within our national plan, lead delivery of action on State lands. This will be complemented by support for voluntary measures by farmers outside these areas. I am sure many farmers will want to take this option on their farm and we will strongly support them financially to do this. However, let me be clear that I fully expect that State lands will shoulder the majority of the weight.

I mentioned leadership earlier. Irish farmers are leaders in innovation and delivery of agri-environmental action in Europe. Our European innovation partnerships, funded by my Department under CAP, are a perfect example of this, including projects such as FarmPeat and FarmCarbon, which in recent years have been researching and implementing farmed peat management. Ireland leads in Europe in implementing results-based agri-environment programmes such as the Burren, hen harrier and fresh water pearl mussel programmes. These targeted programmes have informed our current national agri-environment scheme, ACRES. These approaches deliver benefits for both the environment and climate, as desired by the proposed regulation. Many of the LIFE projects that are active across the country at the moment, including the Wild Atlantic Nature integrated project, actively engage with and support farmers to implement best practices that are beneficial for the farmer and for biodiversity as well as climate. These projects have been welcomed by farmers, as reflected in the uptake of actions under the various programmes and the level of engagement with knowledge transfer activities.

This all points to the willingness and ability of our farmers to engage and deliver the ambition of the proposed nature restoration regulation. What is required from us, as political leaders, is openness in our communication and engagement during the development of the national plan and to identify complementarity in actions to maximise the impact of financial instruments. Indeed, there will be challenges regarding funding but diverting funds from the current CAP is simply off the table. Those funds are allocated and are absolutely sacrosanct. It is essential that there is adequate funding in place to support farmers in these objectives. It will be crucial that our national plans fully consider all financial instruments available, including the opportunity to leverage private financial investment, to avoid overburdening one or other of the existing financial instruments available.

It is very unfortunate that the current public narrative regarding the proposed regulation is largely negative. However, the ongoing negotiation process at EU level means that the expected final text and the associated impacts are not yet fully visible. We must not lose sight of the opportunity the proposed regulation presents us with. Ireland supports the protection and enhancement of nature and the rationale for its restoration. Ireland, and the EU as a whole, has seen the continued loss of biodiversity and the degradation of habitats and species over many decades. This proposed regulation provides an opportunity for real, transformative change to restore nature, both here and across the wider EU region, but as I have said, it must work with farmers and fishers.

Food production done at the excellent level we do it here and protecting our climate and biodiversity are not mutually exclusive. They can, they are and they will continue to support our farm families and their businesses. We produce food in harmony with nature. That will not change. What we are aiming to do here is step forward that ambition. Farmers and fishers now and into the future will be food producers who are custodians of the land and the environment.

I am glad to have had the opportunity to address and dispel many of the mistruths, and indeed some of the fearmongering and inaccuracies, I have heard in recent weeks. The only source of the definitive facts are through those who are working vigilantly on behalf of Irish agriculture in Europe, that is, Ministers, my Department and my respective colleagues. I am, however, acutely aware of the emotion surrounding this topic and will continue to work closely with farmers and their representatives to ensure the essence of what we do as food producers is protected.

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