A GROUP OF Irish farmers, environmentalists and academics seeking to establish a database to track the sale and purchase of land and how the acreage is used has attracted attention from Brussels.

In recent days, an informal grouping called the ‘Irish Land Observatory’ has held meetings with the European Commission’s agriculture and rural development officials in a bid to set up a study to examine whether a “land squeeze” is taking place in Ireland’s food sector.

It’s part of an unlikely coalition of a former Macra na Feirme contender to ex-Green Party candidate Saoirse McHugh.

The Commission discussed the formation of an EU-backed pilot project in one of the member states looking at these issues.

The Irish representatives came together following concern that increasing tracts of land are being acquired across the country by billionaire buyers.

While the purchases are entirely legal, among the worries are that they’re driving up the price of land.

It’s become a concern in a part of the economy where farmers are progressively older with fewer opportunities for the next generation to stay involved.

The talks- which were attended by a number of farming groups, were aimed at making Ireland the destination for a pilot EU programme that would see a ‘land observatory’ trialled here.

If successful, the first iteration would focus on gathering data on land and it’s uses.

According to those who attended last week’s meeting, the talks focused on issues including the difficulties in accessing land in the likes of Munster and Leinster, along with the absence of a body compiling and analysing these matters.

Daniel Long, a Tipperary-based member of the Irish Land Observatory, said Irish farming faces “huge issues”, from ensuring the next generation stay involved to confronting a practice known as land consolidation – meaning the greater concentration of land among a smaller number of landowners.

“This isn’t just an issue affecting a small pocket of the country, it’s a European issue as well,” the 31-year-old farmer told The Journal.

“But Ireland is as good a test case as any for an observatory, working here to see where land ownership trends are going, how land is being used.

Former Green Party candidate Saoirse McHugh was among the group in Brussels.

McHugh ran as an independent in last year's European elections. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Speaking to The Journal, the Achill Island-based environmentalist said that she was interested in seeing how land ownership interacts with the policies that govern land use in the country, ranging from biodiversity loss, loss of peatlands to water pollution emissions.

“What happens to land affects everybody and really affects the shape of our communities and societies. So even though land in Ireland is mostly owned by farmers, what happens to land affects everybody,” she said.

“We don’t have a clearly accessible database where we can see how policies really affect land and land movement,” McHugh added.

Long said the “biggest thing is who owns what and understanding how much people own”. However, he admitted that the group will likely face resistance on this goal from some sections of the industry, possibly including those already involved in the largescale purchasing of land.

“Taxpayers are entitled to transparency,” Long added, referring to the levels of state and EU support provided to the sector.

McHugh agreed, saying that the group needed to grapple with how “the more land you own, the more political sway you may have in an area”, adding of larger landholders:

It’s actual influence. Because if I can decide what happens to 80% of the land in the area I live, that’s a huge amount of power.

One concern was flagged by Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, who helped set up the meeting between the group and EU officials, when she sought to reassure the sector that property rights would be respected.

“It is important to note that such a potential land observatory should in no way affect the property rights of farmers or other landowners, which rights are specifically protected by Bunreacht na hÉireann. Farmers should be an integral stakeholder in the whole examination process,” the Fianna Fáil MEP told The Journal.

However, Ní Mhurchú said that the issues raised by the group “points to the necessity for examining the case of establishing an independent Irish Land Observatory, as a multi-stakeholder project, based on a public-private partnership”.

The Fianna Fáil MEP said the lack of data and difficulties in accessing banking support for younger farmers was crucial to problems in the sector.