Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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254. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the position with regard to the European Commission's nature restoration law, which would see at least 35% of peatlands re-wetted by 2050 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56399/22]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The proposed Nature Restoration Regulation provides an opportunity for transformative change in relation to achieving nature restoration in Ireland and the EU as a whole, which is welcomed. Healthy ecosystems provide food and food security, clean water, carbon sinks and protection against natural disasters caused by climate change. Functioning peatlands, wetlands and flood plains, in addition to coastal systems like salt marshes, lagoons and sand dunes are natural buffers against the impacts of climate change and will help in building our resilience to the flooding and coastal inundation that we will be increasingly subjected to.

My Department is working across Government and in consultation with other Departments, including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to refine the national position in relation to the proposed Regulation. At a European level, we are engaging with our partners in other member states and the Commission in seeking to ensure that Ireland’s particular land use context is recognised and accommodated in the text of the Regulation, as it evolves.