Malcolm Noonan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Heydon. This is my first opportunity to congratulate him on his appointment. We worked very well together in Government, along with the senior Minister at the time, Deputy McConalogue. We advanced a lot on what I will be speaking about, namely, the alignment of the next CAP strategic plans with nature objectives and, in particular, the nature restoration regulation and the nature restoration plan, which we have to embark on as a State and want to embark on with ambition.

I welcome the objectives in the programme for Government related to CAP. Among them is the objective that Government will "work ... to ensure that rewetted and restored lands remain eligible for CAP payments and ensuring dedicated funding streams and voluntary actions". I will speak to some of those.

We have in place and have, over the past number of years, thankfully developed good schemes, one of which is the Farming for Water European Innovation Partnership, EIP, working with farmers to improve our water quality and ensure we retain the nitrates derogation. These are hugely important. The Breeding Waders EIP, led by Owen Murphy and his team, and the LIFE programmes, such as LIFE on Machair, Wild Atlantic Nature and Corncrake LIFE, have all been hugely transformational schemes, offering additional income to marginal farmers but also to other landowners. They are proving hugely successful. When they are announced, there is always a huge attendance at the first open days because farmers are interested. Schemes like the farming for nature ambassadors, the hare’s corner and farm plan schemes have all worked in a complementary way, along with the CAP strategic plan and ACRES, over the past number of years. We are starting to see greater alignment in how these schemes operate and how we can potentially restore nature or look at what nature restoration might look like at scale.

On the negative side, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, has been working to head-start species like curlews and lapwings, which involves taking eggs off nests, incubating them and putting them back out in the wild; reintroducing species; using predator-proof fencing; and 24-hour predator patrols. There are huge issues with problematic species such as deer. Thankfully, there is a plan in place, but it needs to be implemented at scale.

We need to do this. These are the interventions we have to make to try to keep, reconnect and restore our habitats and protect species across the country. We can only do this with the support of farmers. We can only do much of the work we do around semi-natural grasslands with grazing animals on our land. This notion that we can rewild or let a lot of nature go back without management is simply not feasible. We need to work with landowners. The vast majority of our land in the country is privately owned. We need to ensure that the nature restoration plan is in alignment with the CAP strategic plan, in particular the ACRES element of it. ACRES was designed as a results-based scheme, which was modelled on the Burren LIFE programme. It is a simple scheme. Others have spoken about the need to simplify these schemes and simplify the payments.

I wish Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin all the very best. She is embarking on the process of bringing the stakeholders together to help bring about Ireland’s next nature restoration plan, which has to be delivered by September next year. It will happen during Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union. From my previous work, the alignment of the CAP strategic plan needs to happen in alignment with the water action plan, the climate action plan, the national biodiversity action plan and the land use, land use change and forestry, LULUCF, targets. All of this will provide opportunities for rural Ireland and young people in rural economies, and address issues of succession in Irish farms as well.

The Department will work closely and collaboratively with the National Parks and Wildlife Service around the development of Ireland’s first nature restoration plan and to use the mechanism of the €3.15 billion climate and nature fund that was committed to in the previous Government to outline where that fund is broken down and how it can align with long-term objectives and provide long-time certainty to farmers, the good advice they need and the long-term funding mechanisms to work to restore nature.

On the multi-annual financial framework at European level, we have said consistently that if the European Union is supporting the nature restoration law, as it has been and thankfully Ireland played a leadership role in ensuring that law was passed, then a European-level fund for nature restoration must have a place. It is hugely important. I ask that the Minister fight for that for Ireland and the other countries.

I believe we can have vibrant nature, good water quality and free-flowing rivers, as well as our built and archaeological heritage, which I am sure other Senators will speak to as well.We can also have productive family farms producing quality food, which is what we do best here. Farmers want to be part of this. I am certain of that because I have heard it from the farmers I have met in derogation areas and in my county of Kilkenny. I have also heard it from farmers whose animals graze marginal areas in Kerry and elsewhere.

Nature is our first and our best line of defence in the face of climate change. We can show leadership, not just during Ireland's Presidency but through the development of a nature restoration plan that is ambitious and that supports farmers to put the right measures in place on their land and that will see them get good support for the work they do. I wish the Minister all the best during his tenure.