Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The European Union has been working on the nature restoration law for many years and we know the law is a community attempt to halt habitat slide and restore biodiversity loss, which is an obvious imperative. The law is primarily intended to target habitats that contribute to carbon capture and storage. While initial targets up to 2030 can be delivered from our bank of State land, the progressive rising targets cannot be achieved from State lands alone. The annexe 1 habitats are specifically targeted for restoration and include drained peatlands, much of which are presently in agricultural use, and for which no opt out exists for farming or associated landowners. Restoring these lost habitats means implementing rewetting and, while this is welcome from a biodiversity perspective, it means such lands cannot be used into the future as they presently are for productive farming. There is an obvious risk for the agricultural economy and to farming family livelihoods. At present, the lands must be defined as for agricultural use. They must be supported under the Common Agricultural Policy incentive scheme. That is what this motion is calling for. The restoration of lands may take precedence over preserving lands within the CAP programme, so we ask that they be preserved within this programme. The requirement to provide land for the restoration programme will also further diminish the availability of agricultural land, thereby increasing future land prices and, by extension, future production costs. This is an unwelcome consequence that will impact Ireland's competitiveness in national and exported food pricing.

Recent years have rightly seen an increased emphasis on tackling climate change and biodiversity loss, and this is certainly in the interest of every global citizen. However, Ireland is firstly an efficient food producing agricultural nation and the impacts of such proposed climate policies are placing a heavy and disproportionate burden on our indigenous agricultural sector. It is therefore incumbent on our environment Ministers attending the European environment discussions this week to have at the top of their agenda both just transition and economic sustainability objectives for our agricultural and rural community. The unique capability of Irish lands to produce both productive and economic output that sustains farming incomes must be recognised within this European legislation, and that is what this motion calls for.

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