Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. A few things need to be addressed. Earlier I heard reference to scaremongering. I hope it was not directed towards me because I was at the forefront of highlighting difficulties with the nature restoration law. I have dealt with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Department for many years and I would not like anybody to think this, because we got legal advice on it. This needs to be stated.

I heard reference to the citizens' assembly. The facts are that six people from a farming background were on it. I asked questions on this and I was not told how many of them were active farmers. On top of this, some people say we are doing a disservice to farmers. Some people speaking here as farmers might be ranchers with a few hundred acres in the eastern part of the country. I am speaking about small farmers in the west of whom 70% have gone organic. They do not have the quality of land. They have land with peaty soil. Anyone who knows the directive knows it does not affect top-quality mineral soil and good quality land. It affects land with peaty soil.

Unfortunately I am old enough to remember the habitats directive. I remember our now President Michael D. Higgins telling everyone they had nothing to worry about and it would not affect them whatsoever when designations came in for special areas of conservation. There are 12 of them in a 20 km area around me. These are the facts. I know a fair bit about them. I remember being told they would not be a problem and they would have nothing to do with farming. We were told there would be nothing like that and the lads cutting turf should not worry about it. In 2011, I saw helicopters flying over us. I also saw gardaí going up and down the roads looking to see what people were doing. This was a fair change from what we were told in 1997.

With the best will in the world Ministers, and I am not having a go at any Minister, believe what they see in front of them. The problem is what happens down the road. We saw this with the habitats directive. It was not what was brought in; it was the ECJ judgments that came in afterwards that tightened us into a straitjacket. To go by the so-called law, if farmers in a designated area must plough the land, put fertiliser on it or put cattle out on it they are supposed to get consent.

The problem with the nature restoration law, and this is coming from legal people and not me saying it, is that by default under Articles 4.1 and 4.2 all peat soils will be claimed as not in good status. On top of this is the worry about what will happen down the line. I know, and I have said it publicly so let no one say I am scaremongering, that the State has enough ground to cover it until 2030 with Bord na Móna and Coillte. If we look at the wording of the nature restoration law, it states that any works finished and carried out already cannot be included. It has to involve either ongoing works or new works. These are the facts.

When we add up the 19,000 ha that Bord na Móna is able to do, it will cover some of it until 2030. I have said this openly. Coillte also has land that will cover us. The issue is from then on. Tell me a place in this country where the State owns agricultural drained peatland. This is land where bog was cut away years ago and it was shored, and there is green grass growing on it and farmers are farming it. The reason this was done, and the EU gave them grants to do it, was to make more viable small farmers with 30 acres, 40 acres or 50 acres in the west, north west, down as far as west Cork and parts of Kerry and the midlands so they could earn a living and rear a family. This is what they have done for years.

People in here speak about ACRES. ACRES has nothing to do with the nature restoration law, whoever believes it has, although it is an environmental scheme. There are 46,000 farmers in it and we welcome what the Minister did this morning to bring in another 9,000 farmers. This means there are now 55,000 in the scheme. We must remember there were 70,000 farmers in the old REPS. Now we are shouting about having 54,000 or 55,000 farmers in a scheme.

There is no point in codding ourselves. It is in the hands of the NPWS to draw up a plan. This plan must go to Europe within two years. All I can say to the Minister of State is that I hope he deals with the stakeholders. There is a worrying part to this. The wording on the designated areas speaks about them being prioritised to get the double bubble of stocking. Have a look at Lough Funshinagh. In 1997 under the habitats directive, was it ever envisaged that in Lough Funshinagh people's houses would be flooded before the habitats directive came in? It is a major problem.

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