Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all my colleagues who contributed to this debate. I thank the Minister of State for clarifying that, regardless of whether this is adopted at EU level, we will see a compulsion with regard to nature restoration in this country. It is set out in statute now and a plan needs to be put in place. What is in that plan is critically important and this is what we are talking about here.

I was disappointed to hear the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, confirm to the House that stakeholder engagement has started. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, disputed the figures I gave. The difficulty is that one cannot dispute the figures I have given. I am not saying they are accurate but one cannot dispute them because we are still waiting on the maps relating to farms and areas in the State that will be impacted by this. Those maps have not yet been published. The Government cannot start stakeholder engagement until people know who will be impacted. The reality is that as we speak the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is going through that mapping process and identifying the lands that may, potentially, be impacted by it. The Government should not put the cart before the horse in this regard. The first thing we need is to identify who could be impacted by this. Let us then have a fair and equitable engagement on it.

Deputy Kerrane is correct to state that CAP cannot be used as compensation. We are not saying that in this motion. We are saying that where farmers have been drawing down payments under CAP there should be provision to ensure they continue to draw down that payment. We are clearly saying that if there are measures relating to nature conservation or restoration, that should be properly and adequately compensated for. Deputy Harkin is correct. When we, as a group, met the EU Commission, it categorically told us there is no funding coming from the EU for this process. This has to come from the Exchequer and the Exchequer must underwrite it.

I am aware there has been debate on the Minister, Deputy Ryan, leading the campaign to have this measure adopted at the EU Council of Ministers but, as I said at the outset, the fact remains that this Parliament, unlike our Swedish counterparts, stayed quiet on expressing its formal view to the Commission on these proposals when we had the opportunity to do so.

There are positives in this. I have consistently raised the issue of providing certification for carbon sequestration in this country. We are not doing that like it is being done in Northern Ireland, which is leading and providing a benchmark for it. We are doing it in a piecemeal manner in this country and that should not be the case. I urge all Members to support this motion. Let us commit to protecting our farmers while embracing the environmental benefits for all rather than pitting one community against another, which ultimately undermines those who pay the most and yet will have least to gain. By working together we can create a future where nature can coexist in harmony with agriculture, benefiting both our environment and our rural communities. I hope that we can take a sensible approach, have real engagement and actually listen to people so this is not a top-down directive to people on what they must do but, rather, a real engagement with people on what they can do and how the Government can facilitate them in making that happen.

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