Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cowen for raising this important matter. The Government broadly supports the ambition of the nature restoration law, NRL, throughout its development and welcomes the vote to approve the regulation in the European Parliament earlier this week. Throughout the debate on these proposals, a key ambition for the Government has been to ensure that they achieve their key nature restoration objectives but allow farmers to continue to farm their land in a sustainable way. The current proposals differ in a number of important respects from those that were originally presented by the Commission and are more balanced and practical.

The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, actively engaged with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, whose Department leads on the file, to ensure that the agreed text addresses the needs of nature and that its provisions can be delivered but, importantly, also recognises the rights of farmers to farm their lands as they see fit and that any additional requirements are voluntary.

While the NRL remains ambitious, several elements have been introduced to ensure its objectives can be achieved while maintaining balance across the three pillars of sustainability, namely, environmental, social and, importantly, economic viability, with farmers at the heart of this. Such balance has been found in the inclusion of an emergency break for unforeseen events in the agricultural sector, flexibility in the delivery of rewetting targets, including the use of former peat extraction sites and an explicitly voluntary approach for landowners.

An assessment of condition under the habitats and birds directives is entirely different from an assessment of good agricultural and environmental conditions. The standards for this are defined under CAP Regulation 2021/2115. Further to this, the CAP regulation ensures that eligible areas are not reduced and remain eligible for direct payments when subject to Union requirements relating to environmental protection.

These elements fully safeguard Irish farmers from any perceived risk to CAP payments. I think that is a really important point and I know the Deputy is keen to see it being addressed. It is the national position that commitments made by farmers on a voluntary basis under the national restoration plan will not limit eligibility for payments under national or EU schemes.

The Government's position is that the State will lead on rewetting using State lands to shoulder the majority of the burden associated with rewetting. Any farmer engagement will be entirely voluntary and appropriately incentivised. Farmers’ very real engagement on biodiversity restoration is evidenced by the large number of farmers accepted into our flagship agri-environment scheme, ACRES, which has 46,000 participants. This scheme is delivering more than 1 million ha, scored last year for nature with payments accordingly to farmers.

We have many other exemplary initiatives being taken by farmers including LIFE and EIP projects. These actions are already supporting our ambitions under the NRL and provide a strong basis for the development of further measures to support the implementation of the national nature restoration plan.

The targets within the NRL are mandatory at member state level, and not for individuals. It is the member state’s obligation to identify the best mechanisms for the implementation of this. The development of Ireland’s nature restoration plan is being co-ordinated by the Department of housing. As previously stated, the Government has indicated that a voluntary approach will be used across sectors to incentivise delivery.

The detail of such will be expanded throughout the development of the plan. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, will continue to ensure farmers are at the heart of the design of our nature restoration plan and are involved at all stages in the delivery of any targets that are beneficial for nature and society. Farmers can have confidence that no changes will be forced on them and that they can continue to produce the high-quality food that Ireland is renowned for.

It is recognised that many of the habitats which require restoration require active land management to achieve their favourable condition. Farmers will be key actors in delivering this ambition and will be supported appropriately to do so. One of key tasks of the nature restoration planning process will be to identify the design, targets and incentive schemes to deliver restoration measures, including consideration of national and EU funding opportunities and a comprehensive assessment of funding needs. Completion of the nature restoration plan will be aligned with the opening of the Government’s €3 billion climate and nature fund in 2026. This fund will play an important role in resourcing the measures in the nature restoration plan. The Government’s approach to the development of the plan will ensure farming communities can continue to actively farm in a sustainable way while also achieving our targets for nature restoration.

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