Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The climate and biodiversity crises stand among the greatest challenges facing humanity. Action is needed and there are two ways in which we can try to take those necessary actions. We can either do so in collaboration with communities, workers, farmers and other affected sectors or we can try a top-down approach, finger-pointing, condescension and the imposition of measures with little regard for those who will be affected. This Government has repeatedly chosen the latter route. It is failing. For all their talk, the Green Party, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have missed virtually every target that they set in respect of climate and biodiversity. Almost every measure is seen to be aimed at penalising local communities and ordinary citizens. There is virtually no collaboration or engagement and there is no sign whatsoever that Ireland or the EU is making any meaningful or positive difference. Instead, we have antagonised communities and Irish family farmers are fearful for their future. The EU nature restoration law is a perfect example. Sure who would be against nature restoration? It is as if the title itself should be enough to demand support. The amount of commentary that I have heard from people who clearly did not follow the progression of the EU legislation, who certainly did not understand the different stages of its passage or read the final text, is staggering. The level of snobbery from people in areas that will not be affected by its implementation towards those who will be and who have real and genuine concerns is breathtaking. I am proud that Sinn Féin stands for meaningful action and working in collaboration with those who will be affected by the measures, rather than joining in with a European Parliament consensus that seeks to demonise and ignore them.

We support the restoration of nature. It is imperative. If it is done right, rural communities can benefit. However, it cannot just be about setting targets and hoping for the best and at the last minute, imposing measures to reach those targets. That has been the reality of implementing EU directives thus far. Targets must be accompanied by a plan and that plan has to be developed in partnership with those who will be affected and not forced on them. The necessary funding for initiatives, incentives and supports should be in place at the beginning of a plan and not at some undefined point in the future. The absence of that plan and funding was the reason why Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus rightly voted against the file that was presented to the European Parliament last week. There should be no surprise whatsoever at the position adopted by Sinn Féin. The real unanswered question is how Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs supported a proposal that was flawed and lacked the concrete funding measures that are absolutely essential to the restoration of the complex and interconnected ecosystems on which we all depend.

It is ironic that the farmers who will be affected the most by the approach adopted by the European Parliament are the poorest farmers in Ireland. They are also the ones who are most eager to play a positive and constructive role in climate action and biodiversity. They are farmers who, for example, use the least amount of artificial fertilisers and pesticides. They have the lowest stocking rates and the greatest levels of biodiversity on their farms already. These are the farmers who know they have a part to play in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises. The starting point should be to acknowledge the incredible work that many of them have already done in producing among the safest, and certainly the highest quality, food in the world within the most stringent environmental standards on the planet. Much more needs to be done. I do not know a single farmer who does not acknowledge that or believes that standards will not or should not continue to rise. The challenge for those of us in public life is to put in place the framework that allows farmers to succeed while doing what is necessary for climate and biodiversity. This Government and the European Union are failing in providing that framework. This Government in particular is very good at setting ambitions targets but is atrocious at meeting them. Nobody and no purpose is served by that approach. It does not serve farmers and the rural communities that depend on them or the environment. The Government approach all too often amounts to hypocrisy, double standards and lecturing. Let me be clear that Sinn Féin absolutely supports a nature restoration law but it will not support just any nature restoration law and especially not one that will potentially drive small, family beef and sheep farmers out of existence for no purpose. The proposal before the European Parliament last week failed to commit the funding and safeguards necessary to deliver the environmental ambition without impoverishing farmers or affecting Irish regions, particularly in the west.

Those who supported the European Parliament's nature restoration law say they want nature restoration but it appears that they want farmers to pay for it. This is the approach that has failed time and again. Perhaps if these same family farmers had not been failed by every single iteration of the Common Agricultural Policy for at least the past decade, they might have come to this issue with a different perspective but the truth is that we have been asking farmers to do much more while providing them with fewer supports in real terms every year. We now have a climate action plan that expects farmers to do more with no additional supports. This nature restoration law expects farmers to do more but, again, with no guarantee of additional support.

Instead we are met again today with the dishonesty of a Government that still pretends that farmers are receiving a benefit from the carbon taxes, of which they pay more than anyone else, instead of the reality that any new funding stream is just supplanting streams that were already removed. The parties of Government and the EU have stated that climate is a policy priority but they simply have not made funding that policy a priority.

Sinn Féin secured changes to the nature restoration law that ensured that financial supports, including compensation, would be available to farmers negatively affected. We supported the law at that stage on that basis but those gains were lost during the trilogue negotiations with the sign off from this Government. Earlier, the Minister essentially said that the Government is going to support the nature restoration law regardless of the changes that are made. When those gains and safeguards for Irish family farmers were lost, so too was Sinn Féin's support because we approach this issue knowing that it is imperative that we succeed in the full knowledge that the stated objectives can only be delivered with a plan that is devised in collaboration with those who will be affected. That is why it has been us, and nobody else in this House, who have introduced proposals to protect and restore nature, including the establishment of a dedicated nature restoration fund. This is why we remain committed to delivering nature restoration in partnership with rural communities and family farmers because it simply will not happen otherwise.

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