Tipperary TD Jackie Cahill has today expressed his outright opposition to the mandatory rewetting targets currently being proposed by the EU Parliament.
The European Commission’s proposal for a Nature Restoration Law is the first continent-wide, comprehensive law of its kind. It is a key element of the EU Biodiversity Strategy which calls for binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems, in particular those with the most potential to capture and store carbon and to prevent and reduce the impact of natural disasters.
Deputy Cahill, who chairs the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine also welcomed recent comments by the Fianna Fáil MEP for Ireland South, Billy Kelleher stating that he is unable to support any law that includes mandatory rewetting targets. Both Public Representatives say such proposals contained in the Nature Restoration Law would seriously hamper economic development. Deputy Cahill says the proposal of a 30% restoration target is just not acceptable and will be vigorously resisted.
“The rewetting of the country’s bogs can have a significant impact on farms in the locality of those bogs and the impact that this would have on the water table would be very difficult to measure and determine “according to Deputy Cahill.
The Thurles based TD, who also operates a dairy farm says policy decisions taken in Brussels can decimate the capital value of land that farmers want to continue to farm as a priority rather than merely resisting the new law to secure compensation.
