Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The timelines are roughly similar. To go back to what the Minister of State said, this review of land is not to tell an individual farmer or forester this is what they must do or else. It is to try to get an assessment of what is happening and to try to make sure we align our incentives with rural development, the future of farming and the protection of the natural world and system.

The scale of change is not small. We made a great change in this country in going from only 1% or 2% forestry cover at the foundation of the State to 11% today. It is no fault of anyone, and I am not putting the blame on anyone, but those forest systems were put in the wrong place. Typically they were put up high on the mountains where we were draining peaty soils. The nature of the forestry, involving clear fell, monoculture and fast-rotation cycles, does not enhance nature. It does not improve water quality. It does not protect and encourage biodiversity. This needs to change. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, has started an initiative under the new forestry programme that puts nature centre stage.

With regard to farming, I echo what the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, has said. I see nothing but opportunity for this in the Irish farming community. The current system does not serve the vast majority of farmers in terms of income or certainty for the future. When I was reading the newspapers this morning, I was encouraged to see signs of the green shoots that we have every day in our country. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has expanded further access to the ACRES programme. It was massively oversubscribed beyond what anyone expected. Almost half of Irish farmers must now be in the ACRES system with the further extension today. This is a sign that the false narrative of environment versus agriculture is not the future. The vast majority of Irish farmers understand this, as can be seen by engagement in the likes of the ACRES programme.

We are starting to change in the three major areas of forestry, pastureland and wetlands. I would cite Bord na Móna as the best example of a country going from brown to green. We have already rehabilitated 13,000 ha of bogland. When we visit the rehabilitated areas it is fascinating to see how quickly nature comes back when it is managed using the same skills as used to extract the peat. Suddenly we notice nature thriving. For the first time in 300 years cranes are coming back to our midlands waterways. We have everything to gain from this. People get their reward from the stored carbon as well as the restored nature.

Critical to how we do this and to the politics of this is that it is on a collaborative basis. It is about working with local communities, forestry, farming and nature lovers throughout the country. It is also critical that we admit there is uncertainty. The climate change assessment on land use keeps changing. We only really discovered in recent years the downside of the forestry programme. We had to amend our plans at the last minute to adjust to what the science was telling us . Even more recently Teagasc came out with very useful analysis showing a significant change in the amount of land already storing carbon because it is not as drained as people previously thought. We should admit uncertainty as we start devising our plan. We should admit that we have to learn by doing. No one has the magic secret formula and no one will tell anyone else what the exact approach is. It is by collaboration and co-operation that we will make this leap.

I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan. The work he has done on this has been significant. He said that the Irish Government, the Irish Parliament and the European Parliament were won over on this because of the Irish votes, and this is true, but much of the credit goes to him in terms of how it has been presented and how we have approached it in the Government. I was proud to be a member of the European Council when it was discussed, debated and agreed. I was fascinated to see those political parties that opposed it suddenly started to hear the silent majority, which we do not hear, saying they do not want nature destruction and they want it to return. They changed their votes. Unfortunately others changed back again. Those Irish MEP votes that really did win the day were because the Irish people buy into this. In every county, parish and community they understand the desire to restore nature.

I will mention my local river and parish in Milltown. I am old enough to remember the Dodder being utterly polluted. It was not known as Milltown for no reason. It was an industrial river where we did a lot of our manufacturing and processing of chemicals. As a child I remember that sections of the river were white with ammonia. It was completely dead. It had been killed. Now if we walk that river we see dippers, herons, kingfishers and otters. It is incredible that when we allow nature to restore itself it does it in a dramatic and very quick way. This should give us real confidence and hope for restoring our communities.

This is a global problem but we should bring it back to a local level. By doing this it means it not only has an economic benefit and fulfils European regulations, but it involves pride of place. It brings a sense of joy and a sense of connection. Ultimately it is also about our security on the planet which is in deep peril. We cannot speak about nature without noticing and commenting on the fact that in the past year global sea temperatures have gone off the dial. They have completely jumped. In the past month CO2 concentration has risen 4 parts per million.

February was the warmest month ever but by measures that were off the scale. That reality is also going to put nature under stress, and it will further challenge us. We need to act fast with the nature restoration law that we have here in everything we do to secure our future and to maintain the wonder that is in the world.

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