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JUNIOR MINISTER OSSIAN Smyth has said he is “not happy” about the European People’s Party (EPP) decision to walk out of negotiations on the EU’s nature restoration law.
The EPP – of which Fine Gael is a member in the European Parliament – pulled out of committee talks yesterday, saying it had “serious concerns” that the law would threaten food production in Europe and push the cost of food up.
The European Commission says the law 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.
Smyth, a Green Party TD for Dún Laoghaire, said he was “disappointed” with the EPP.
“Forget the coalition and politics, I think Irish people love nature and want to protect it,” he said.
Smyth said the proposal is not yet law and negotiations remained “vague” and “very broad”.
“The principle of it is that we would protect nature on a portion of European land and that we would find a way to compensate farmers and landowners for protecting nature and that it would be done on a voluntary basis.”
The proposals include targets for the restoration and rewetting of drained peatlands. This has become politically contentious in Ireland in recent weeks, with debate focusing on to what extent land that was drained in the past for agricultural use may need to be rewetted.
The Irish Farmers’ Association attended a protest in Brussels today on the issue.
IFA President and @COPACOGECA Vice-President Tim Cullinan addressing this mornings protest in Brussels on the proposed EU Nature Restoration Law. pic.twitter.com/wEuf7PG7Qv
— Irish Farmers' Association (@IFAmedia) June 1, 2023
The EPP’s chief negotiator on nature restoration, MEP Christine Schneider, said: “We cannot continue as if nothing has happened to our economy since the start of the war and the excessive pressure it puts on our rural communities and our farmers. The EPP Group is in favour of nature protection and restoration, but this law is simply not good enough.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has previously said there are aspects of the proposed laws that “go too far”.
When asked by Rural Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae earlier this month what the Government will do to protect rural people and farmland, Varadkar said the nature restoration law is only a proposed European law.
“I want to make it very clear that it is a proposal at this stage. We all understand the need to protect nature and restore biodiversity loss to allow nature to regrow but there are aspects of it that go too far in my view, particularly if it comes to taking agricultural land out of use for food production and, indeed, in urban areas, there are issues where it might become harder, for example, to turn a grass pitch into an all-weather pitch.”
Varadkar said there is “a long way to go before this regulation is right”.
Speaking to RTE radio, Smyth said he would continue to work with his coalition partners on the matter.
He criticised what he called “horrible conservative scaremongering” over the issue.
“I want the public to go to their public representatives and say: ‘Actually, my quality of life is improved by nature and I want you to protect nature and I’m horrified by the reduction in species’.
“This isn’t about some species going extinct in Africa or Asia. This is about our country, losing our plants and animals and trees and leaving nothing for the next generation.”
He said he was sure this would be a “major topic” when his party leader Eamon Ryan meets Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar next Monday.
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Only seemed like yesterday the values were through the floor. I emigrated during the big crash and bought property/set up shop in another country. Now I’m a happy homeowner & landlord. A fair landlord. This housing stuff in Ireland really saddens me. There will prob be a twin tier society over it. People with financial power will overpay. People without financial power will struggle so badly to live. And live in horrible conditions. Very sad. Emigrating was the hardest decision I ever made. But I’m glad I did. Previous comment is correct. Boom bust is common in some places. Usually places rich in natural resources like oil etc. But it’s not something that that suits the Irish economy. Start building high rises could be the solution here
@Ronan McDermott: well said, not convinced about high rises but you are asking the questions no one wants to answer. Fair play.
@Greedylocks: I hear you about the highrises. Ballymun didn’t work out. But on a small island you can’t always build out. Maybe time to build up. Especially in Dublin. Give people somewhere respectable to live and then you’ll see the real value of these 70s style dumps that landlords are currently renting to people at extortionate rates. The value would be sfa. I’m thinking about quality of life here. As right now it’s not very good for so so many people
@Ronan McDermott: well said.
This is an extraordinary misleading economical model. We are in a cycle of boom and bust. Eventually nobody will risk lending this country money. Vulture funds are gathering to pick the bones.
@Greedylocks: the neoliberal model can only produce boom bust cycles, where the wealthy get wealthier as money is siphoned to the top. So they can ride out the storm, unless they fail to save for the inevitable crash, and those at the bottom pay the consequences. A model based on permanent growth on a planet with finite resources, what could possibly go wrong????
@Greedylocks: the neoliberal model can only produce boom bust cycles, where the wealthy get wealthier as money is siphoned to the top. So they can ride out the storm, unless they fail to save for the inevitable crash, and those at the bottom pay the consequences. A model based on permanent growth on a planet with finite resources, what could possibly go wrong????
A model based on exploiting human vulnerabilities through advertising, and serving the market, always a volatile thing, so that the market will meet all our needs. We see the failure of it all around us and blindly elect the same parties with the same policies to do the same thing again and again as if this one time it might work…….
This has been years in the making by our FG whose primary mission has been to recapitalise the banks. The homeless crisis and the unaffordability of houses is barely a thorn in the side for them.
@Quiet Goer: Surely you mean FFG .. Media not telling the true story again at local elections as FFG lose more and more ground. The people are slowly awakening….
@Willy: sf lost the most ground
We are bubbling our way to another bust.
Note that property investment trusts are selling out now to cash in at the top of the market.
These guys know when to cash in their chips.
@William Kelly: you are correct I’m afraid we will be heading for another slump , housing prices cannot keep going up and up.
It’s only in Dublin though, most of the rest of the country are still below 2013 levels
a housing bubble inflated by the European central bank policy to give money to the banks for free. we on the other hand must pay interest on that loan and the banks make money by doing nothing.
who here knows anything about Deusch Bank?
people wanna get smart very quick to what is going on again……2007
Kensington in London, Upper East side in New York, 6th arrondissement in Paris. These Dublin prices are here to stay. It’s nothing to do with ‘neo-liberal’ policies. It’s to do with supply and demand. Why can the hard left never understand this ?
@Virgil: that’s what they said last time…..
@Gus Sheridan: even with a bust, Mt Merrion, Foxrock et al will still be the priciest housing in the country
Anyone know how many in government own second properties?
@thesaltyurchin: 15 landlords sit in the dail at any given day,but I could be wrong,FG k o Connell has 8 property’s .
Our wonderful banks must be approaching solvency so.
have your say