Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cahill again for bringing this up today, and bringing these concerns to the table. This is something I have been working on for more than a year since the policy proposals were first published by the Commission. It is something I have been working on with Government colleagues, and with fellow European agriculture ministers at Council of Ministers level. The changes we got and that have now been agreed with other agriculture ministers through the Council of Ministers deal with many of the issues and challenges I saw at the outset, and bring balance and proportionality to this law.

Much of the discussion in the last few weeks has been around what is happening at European Parliament level, because the Parliament is a co-decision-maker on this. I hope, and expect from the soundings I am taking, that we are seeing the Parliament now move closer to where the Council of Ministers has been at. If we see that, we will get a balanced and proportionate outcome.

It is important we get a nature restoration law to provide the policy and platform across the European Union to deal with the really concerning situation which concerns farmers and everyone in society, where we have seen nature diminished in the last generation or two. We cannot afford to see that continue. That is really important for food production and farm incomes, but also for the existence of us all and the health of the world around us. It is important we do this, but do it in a balanced and proportionate way. That is what I have been working to achieve. It is really important that we communicate that and provide the reassurance to farmers that we, as a Government, understand their concerns. We have worked to ensure that those concerns are reflected, and we will work with them to back them in the work that they have shown themselves to be willing to do. Witness ACRES, for example, and the very significant uptake on that. Farmers have shown they are willing to do this with the appropriate backing, and we will be giving them that backing. Importantly, we will be working to communicate what we are doing as well, and the fact we all want to work together to achieve something which is really important for all of us.

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