A Dáil debate on the Nature Restoration Law has heard that environmental conservation is being prioritised over the livelihoods of Irish farmers – as Rural TDs hit out at the passing of the EU legislation.
Deputy Mattie McGrath told the Dáil on Thursday that “farmers are being demonised and used as a sacrificial lamb,” as he criticised Irish MEPs for voting in favour of the legislation last week.
The EU regulation sets specific targets to restore degraded land and sea areas through measures including the rewetting drained peatlands or increasing urban green spaces — but it has faced resistance from lobby groups, various EU member states and parliamentary opposition led by the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP).
Through setting “binding targets to restore degraded econsystems,” the law, adopted by Ireland, plans to make the EU more resistant to the effects of global warming. Initiatives proposed in the law include the protection of marine, urban and agricultural ecosystems – including ring-fencing 10 per cent of EU land for conservation. It is the latest piece of legislation to come from the European Green Deal, a collection of policies with the objective of making the EU climate neutral by 2050.
The law has reignited tension between farming and environmentalism in Ireland, according to Deputy Mattie McGrath.
“In the heart of Ireland, a storm is brewing. Rural communities, the backbone of this country, feel abandoned and betrayed. The culprit is a green agenda driven by NGOs and the Green Party with the full endorsement of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael,” McGrath said on Thursday.
Deputy McGrath claimed that “this agenda prioritises environmental conservation over the livelihoods of farmers and the viability of rural Ireland.”
“They can work hand in hand. Farmers are great custodians of the land and have been for decades. There is now a push from the Green Party, telling them how to behave. We heard about the corncrakes from Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív. I remember cutting hay when the rotary mowers came out. We would start in the middle to ensure the corncrakes would not be penned in and could escape,” he said.
He went on to reference the vote on the Nature Restoration Law, which took place in the European Parliament on 27 February. Of Ireland’s 13 MEPs, only two opposed the legislation, which will restore 20 per cent of the EU’s land and sea.
The “pivotal” legislation, which was passed, obliges EU countries to restore at least 30 per cent of habitats in poor condition by 2030, 60% by 2040, and 90% by 2050. The EU has claimed that “over 80 per cent” of European habitats are “in poor shape.” The restoration targets will place legally binding targets on the Government.
Commentators have said backlash against the Nature Restoration Law exposed “deep divides” within the European Parliament. While hailed by climate scientists and a large number of Socialist and Democrat MEPs, French MEP Anne Sander described it as “ill-conceived, ideological, and completely divorced from reality,” while it also faced strong criticism from the European Conservatives and Reformists and the European People’s Party – the largest party in the European Parliament. A large number of MEPs from the liberal Renew Europe party also opposed the Bill.
“On 27 February, a pivotal vote on the nature restoration law took place in the European Parliament. Of Ireland’s 13 MEPs, only two opposed it. The vote was tight enough with 329 MEPs in favour and 275 against. The two Irish MEPs who stood against the law were Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan and Chris MacManus, both members of the Left group in the European Parliament,” Deputy Mattie McGrath continued.
“However, Mr. MacManus later tweeted that his vote against the new law had been an error, casting doubt on Sinn Féin’s stance on this issue. I am surprised to learn where Sinn Féin stands on any issue lately. The law received support from the five Fine Gael MEPs and all of the Fianna Fáil MEPs. I will not name them all because everyone knows who they are, but I will name Mr. Seán Kelly in Munster and Mr. Billy Kelleher.
“A while ago, Mr. Kelleher was lamenting the fact that 75% of all legislation is now passed in the European Parliament but now he has gone and passed this draconian law. These MEPs now have the audacity to go around holding meetings and knocking on farmers’ doors looking for support after having abandoned them. Let us be clear, all of the MEPs who voted for this new law and their respective political parties have completely and totally turned their backs on rural Ireland, all at the behest of the Green Party in order to cling onto power,” the Tipperary Independent said.
“Farmers are being demonised and used as a sacrificial lamb. I am proud to come from a very mixed farm. We grew everything. We had sheep, cattle and even a horse. I worked with the horse. Now, when a horse is working, you have to put a bag on his you know what to stop him from even breaking wind. This carry-on is ridiculous.”
Deputy McGrath claimed that “the way farmers are being demonised is totally unfair,” adding: “It is destroying their confidence.”
Focusing on the Bill, he said: “By 2030, 20% of their land and sea is going to be taken out. It will be up to 80% by 2050. The Government is tying farmers’ hands behind their backs. It is spancelling them and blindfolding them. The next thing is that it will stop them from having a sense of smell. What will we have?
“We will have no food and no food security. We will not be able to send food abroad to Europe and all over the world as we do now. The victimisation and demonisation of farmers and farm families by the Government, his party and the NGOs is nothing short of scandalous. An official wing of the State is telling porkies and giving false and fake reports and it is getting away with it. It is a shocking indictment of the corrupt state of this country that it can do that every week only for it to go unchallenged and unnoticed.”
“I stand here as the proud son of a farming family. I have some land myself that I inherited from my ancestral home. I support the farmers but the Government is abandoning them. I ask the Minister of State to please not drive them to the ground altogether and to allow them to live and grow food,” he added.
Independent Ireland’s Deputy Richard O’Donoghue was also highly critical of the legislation, as he urged farmers “not to vote for the same people who have destroyed their future.”
“In the vote that was taken, 329 voted for and 275 voted against. Every MEP we sent out of there, bar two, voted for this. Two voted against but those two, the Sinn Féin representative, Chris MacManus, and ‘Ming’ Flanagan, have been voting for it all along. Come the last vote, they changed their votes because they thought it would not be popular to vote for it. They are not the people we want out there representing Ireland,” he said.
“We want real people involved. When the European Union elections come around, in light of the Fianna Fáil and the Fine Gael candidates that are running, every farmer should look up and see that they have been sold out by their own. There will be independent candidates running in the EU elections who would represent people a great deal better than the parties that put them in this hole in the first place. Now they are being led by the Green Party and every decision they make has been led by that.
“However, the Green Party does not listen to science. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are as guilty as the Green Party. Remember that Independent Ireland will have candidates running in the European elections. I ask farmers to make sure they do not vote for the same people who have destroyed their future,” the Limerick TD said.
Deputy Richard Bruton appeared to hit out at O’Donoghue for his stance, claiming that “the people doing the greatest disservice to Irish agriculture are those like the previous speaker who pretend that holding out against the change we need to make in agriculture and in all dimensions of our lives will make it easier.”
“That the hold-outs will win the day by resisting, to the very last ditch, the ending of untenable practices and that this will provide a future for Irish agriculture or for rural Ireland.”
“That is a totally blind alley,” he said. “Every sector, regardless of what the sector is, will need to have sustainability at the heart of its long-term strategy for prosperity. The future for prosperous Irish farms lies in having sustainable methods of production. This means changing some of the ways in which we farm. Those who pretend they can resist that and who stick their heads in the sand are leading those they purport to represent up a blind alley. That really needs to be emphasised,” the Fine Gael TD said.
“As much as anyone who comes from rural Ireland, I am aware that we need to be sustainable. We need to respect nature because it provides the goods we all enjoy. We need to recognise that current practices globally are extracting three times what nature can restore every year.”
Leader of the Green Party, Eamon Ryan, said: “I see nothing but opportunity for this in the Irish farming community. The current system does not serve the vast majority of farmers in terms of income or certainty for the future.”
“Those Irish MEP votes that really did win the day were because the Irish people buy into this. In every county, parish and community they understand the desire to restore nature,” he claimed.