INDEPENDENT Roscommon-Galway TD, Michael Fitzmaurice, has this week warned farmers and their representative organisations, that they are far from ‘out of the woods’ as regards rewetting targets in the proposed EU Nature Restoration Law.

Deputy Fitzmaurice told the Farming Tribune that while Article 9 had been removed by the European Parliament last week, Articles 4.1 and 4.2 – also containing the rewetting proposal of peaty lands – were still retained in the legislation.

“It’s like someone locking the front door of the house and leaving the back door wide open for anyone to walk in. Articles 4.1 and 4.2, will in my opinion, still leave a lot of Irish farmers, and western ones in particular, in huge danger,” said Michael Fitzmaurice.

He also added that proposals relating to marine areas along the Irish coast could come with a price tag of around €20 billion – ‘a completely impossible target’ for a country the size of Ireland, he added.

“Following last week’s European Parliament vote, the Nature Restoration Law now moves on to Trilogue discussions [mid-August] involving the Council of Ministers, the Commission and the European Parliament rapporteurs [elected MEPs who look at the proposals in detail],” said Michael Fitzmaurice.

He said that while the Parliament vote had removed Article 9 from the Nature Restoration Law, the same proposals on peatland still remained in Article 4 of the legislation which required the rewetting of peatland by at least 30% by 2030; 60% by 2040; and 90% by 2050.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.