Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Senator Pippa Hackett):

I thank Deputy Naughten and his colleagues for raising this important topic. The Government is not opposing the motion. The proposed regulation on nature restoration, better known as the nature restoration law, is landmark EU legislation and will have an impact on all areas of society, including farming. It is my strong belief that the impact of the nature restoration law will be positive for society, farming and our wider environment because restoring nature is essential.

The nature restoration law will introduce legally binding restoration targets for a broad suite of marine and terrestrial habitats, including grasslands, woodlands, sand dunes, rivers, lakes, peatlands and other wetlands. This will inevitably have policy, legislative and sectoral implications for the responsibilities of many Departments, from housing and planning to energy, forestry, fisheries and water. It is up to each member state to decide how it will achieve these targets by making a national restoration plan within two years of the regulations coming into force. This is very much in our hands in Ireland as a member state, when it comes to how we implement the law in the Irish context. Restoration of habitats does not have to mean cessation of current land use. Rather it is an opportunity to work with landowners to reach restoration objectives and clearly, given that two thirds of our land is farm land, that will include farmers. Farming and nature simply have to work side by side. It cannot be either-or.

In this vein, work has already started on a stakeholder engagement process to develop the national restoration plan. Farmers, foresters, fishers, landowners and their representatives will be centrally involved in this process. It has been stated repeatedly previously in this Chamber and elsewhere and I will state it again with clarity, that all restoration measures will be voluntary. No one is forcing anyone to do anything. The legal obligation to achieve the proposed regulation's targets is on the member state, not individual landowners. This is why any restoration measures that landowners choose to participate in will be well-incentivised and well-resourced, as they will be voluntary. The Government will be the first to say that we will only achieve our common goal of restoring nature with proper incentives, resources and engagement and communication with farmers. Schemes and incentives will be designed in partnership with all stakeholders in the next two years as part of the nature restoration planning process. Farmers know the land and the natural environment better than anyone so we will be calling on their expertise to shape this.

The timing of the completion of the national nature restoration plan is aligned with the opening of the Government's €3.15 billion climate and nature fund in 2026. This fund will be key to resourcing the measures in the plan. The Government knows that this approach of proper incentives and proper resources is the only way to ensure that the nature restoration plan delivers for Ireland, delivers for restoring nature across our country in line with our obligations and targets, and supports farmers and rural communities at the same time.

Turning specifically to some of the concerns of farmers, I appreciate that uncertainty arises from the proposed regulation in respect of the restoration of drained peatlands in agricultural use and the future eligibility of land payments under the Common Agricultural Policy, matters that are being raised in this debate. There has previously been confusion around the targets for restoration being equated to areas to be rewetted. I regret to say that some of that confusion has been created deliberately to sow fear. This was never the case. Even the original Commission proposal saw rewetting as part of the restoration measure and did not comprise all of the measure. The restoration of drained peatlands does not necessarily mean bringing the water table to surface level or higher. Rewetting is just one of several tools available for the restoration of target ecosystems. The proposed regulation defines "rewetting" as the process of changing a drained peat soil towards a wet soil. There is no reference to water tables or land being permanently wet. In fact, this definition allows Ireland to determine for ourselves what “rewetting” means in our national circumstances. Last year, some Teagasc data showed that there was a sizable portion of farmed land on peat soils that was wetter than we had given it credit for. That land is still being farmed, albeit with some difficulty at certain times of the year – we have some fairly wet soils on our own farm – but it can still be farmed and managed.

The Government is confident that the 2030 and 2040 rewetting targets, at a minimum, can be met entirely on State lands. I remind the House that the targets being put forth under the nature restoration regulation are lower than the restoration targets already set out in national policy under the Climate Action Plan, which includes a commitment to rewetting 33,000 ha of Bord na Móna lands by 2030 and 77,600 ha overall. In addition, the Commission has confirmed that the commitment to 77,600 ha of peatland rehabilitation using Bord na Móna lands in the Climate Action Plan can count towards the overall nature restoration law targets if that work is under way by the time the regulation comes into force, potentially reducing the demand on private landowners further. Moreover, this is without counting the several thousand hectares of restoration work currently being undertaken and planned by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Turning to the future eligibility of land for payments under CAP, I wish to state clearly for the record that restoration measures will not negatively impact any existing CAP commitment or any other scheme or incentive delivered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. This has been confirmed by Commissioner Sinkevicius. The CAP regulations are explicit, in that the area eligible for direct payments is not reduced when subject to certain EU requirements relating to environmental protection and remains eligible for direct payments. Restoration measures on agricultural ecosystems are about bringing more nature back to farms, not taking that land out of farming. Any payments to support this work will not, to my mind, be compensatory. Rather, they will be rewarding in nature, as this is essential work that needs to be done.

The Government is committed to ensuring that nature restoration provides additional income streams for landowners and farmers and brings benefit to rural economies. Tens of thousands of Irish farmers are already taking part in voluntary nature restoration under CAP programmes, for example, ACRES co-operation, as well as LIFE programmes, EIPs and the NPWS farm plan scheme. We want to continue and build on that approach. The nature restoration plan will allow us to do just that.

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