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

I thank the Deputy. I am happy to confirm my and the Government's support for an EU nature law. We have seen an extraordinary loss of biodiversity in Ireland, Europe and around the world in the past few decades. For me, it was brought into sharp focus by one of the David Attenborough documentaries I watched where he pointed out that 97% of all animal life on earth by weight is us and the things we eat. That only left 3% for nature. That is one of the reasons why I and this Government support a new EU nature law.

But it is important that we get it right. It has to be a law which works with farmers and not against them, one that respects rural and coastal communities, and has to be a law that does not conflict with climate action and with the things we want to do in installing wind power, solar power etc.

As a Government we have signed up to a version of that law agreed by the European Council. Around the European Council table there are many EPP Prime Ministers and I happen to be one of them. The original proposal put forward by the Commission was too far-reaching and is not the one that we agreed to as a Government. We agreed to a different version, the Council version. I know that it needs to be understood - I know that Deputy Bacik understands this but people who do not follow European politics as closely may not - that there are different versions of this law. It is still only a draft law and much negotiation must still be carried out. It is important that we get it right and that we bring farmers, rural and coastal communities with us because if we try to impose things on them that they will not accept, it will backfire, and backfire badly. That is why we have taken a constructive approach and are not just blindly accepting the original proposal from the Commission but actually saying that we wanted a better law. That is what we succeeded in negotiating round the European Council table, with negotiations led by the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and others.

I, quite frankly, do not agree with some of the statements made by the president of the EPP. We do not agree on everything but it is important to recognise that the EPP is a big political organisation. The original proposal made by the European Commission, probably the greenest Commission we have ever seen in Europe, has an EPP President in President von der Leyen. One has differences of opinion within political parties. That happens in Ireland and it certainly happens at European level also.

We are doing some work on the just transition commission at the moment but I cannot give the Deputy a date for its establishment just yet but I will follow that up and come back to her.

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