Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Under the programme for Government, Ireland is projected to plant 450,000 ha of forestry between now and 2050. That is about 1.1 million acres. In 2023, with all the debacle that has gone on with forestry over recent years, farmers, if they want to apply to plant trees, cannot do so because the Department will tell them that it is waiting for state aid approval. Along with that - this seems to be the week of leaked documents - in Europe a document from the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development, DG AGRI, was leaked which had on its cover a note to top civil servants not to carry it in public, to use encrypted software and, if at all possible, to shred it if anyone sees it. In that document the Commissioner states that there will be major problems under the proposed rewetting or the nature restoration project Europe has proposed. DG AGRI has stated that there will be major problems under the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, major problems for farmers and major problems for the farm-to-fork strategy.

A few months ago, I brought this up here and talked about approximately 800,000 acres that have been proposed in Ireland. There is also a proposal under the nature restoration law relating to 70% of drained peatlands. When I talk about drained peatlands I am talking about the likes of Listowel, where the black and white cows are up and down the field, and a lot of the west of Ireland, where farmers of sheep and suckler cows earn a living on parts of their farms. If this proposal comes to pass, it will decimate a certain part of the country. If what I have talked about is totalled, it is at least 2 million acres. That 2 million acres will go from the top of Donegal down to the bottom of Kerry or out to part of west Cork. It will come out to the midlands. It definitely will not, however, touch the Golden Vale because there are no peatlands there. It definitely will not touch the Hill of Tara, good land in Kildare or a lot of other parts of the country. It will, however, affect small family farms in the areas I have mentioned.

Is it not worrying to the Taoiseach that a Commissioner has a secret document internally in the EU that states very clearly that there are major problems under CAP and major problems for farmers? Politically, this is a hot potato, and still the Taoiseach, as leader of the country, and his Government are now supporting this document or the proposal on the nature rewetting law. Will he or his Government put a halt to what is going on for the sake of the small family farms in the areas I have outlined?

See this speech in context