Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to engage in scaremongering; I am just going to give the basic facts. There a different proposals being negotiated at the moment in respect of the EU nature restoration law. There is a proposal before the European Parliament which is very radical. There is a proposal at the European Council on which the Government is currently negotiating. There is also a proposal made by the European Commission. At a certain point, we get to trilogue and we try to reach an agreement between those three different bodies. The position of the Government is very clear. We support an EU nature restoration law. We think it is a good idea. It is about a lot more than rewetting. It is also about urban areas and increased biodiversity in urban and suburban areas. However, we are also very clear on this that we do not support imposing on Irish farmers rewetting obligations that are compulsory.

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