ICSA president Sean McNamara has said the decision by the EU Council of Environment ministers to pass the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) today will cause serious unease amongst many Irish farmers. “As it stands, we have no clarity around how this law will be implemented in Ireland and what the consequences will be, especially for those on peaty soils. It is yet another example of an initiative being imposed on farmers that is heavy on targets and light on how those targets will be met or how they will be funded,” he said.

 Continuing Mr McNamara said, “Although various ministers have assured us that any schemes introduced under the Nature Restoration Law will be voluntary, we need concrete guarantees on this. The reality is we need to see a series of guarantees to reassure farmers that their property rights will be protected, that their right to farm their own lands will be protected, that productive agricultural land will not be commandeered, that food production will not be impacted, that food security will be taken into consideration, and that the livelihoods of farmers will not be jeopardised.”

 A national restoration plan for Ireland will now be devised which then must be submitted to the European Commission for approval. Mr McNamara said, “This plan must show how Ireland will deliver on the targets we have now committed to reaching. ICSA will be insisting that funding must form part of these discussions from the very start. Funding cannot and must not be excluded from these discussions.”