Peatlands hit by Dublin train

Last week’s front-page story has caused shockwaves across the country, particularly in those areas where peatland is predominant.

Farmers felt that the deal negotiated in Brussels back in 2023 – while far from perfect from their point of view – was a framework that they could live within.

Remember, back then the Government declared that no farmer would be required to carry out rewetting of land, that it would be voluntary and supported.

Charlie McConalogue, the then minister for agriculture, repeatedly asserted that all the commitments Ireland had signed up to under the Nature Restoration Law could be met from within State land. That was a certainty up to 2030, maybe even 2040. The compromise around the Nature Restoration Law came after a fierce political battle at home and in Brussels.

The farm organisations lobbied relentlessly, MEPs voted against the first proposal, resulting in the first vote being a dead heat.

Environmental activists expressed disappointment at the final outcome, and farmers on the frontline might have begun to hope they would not lose out under the second, compromise proposal.

Meanwhile, the parallel track has been Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) 2 which is a requirement to receive direct payments. This continues to be scrutinised and battled over.

While dealing with the twin threats of the Nature Restoration Law and GAEC 2, it now seems that farmers have to contend with a third challenge: the peatland commitments under the Climate Action Plan.

As last week’s paper revealed, the Government is now turning its mind to how the target of 80,000ha of reduced management intensity of drained organic soils (peatland) will be met.

There is a fairly significant clue in the original plan, where the words “reduced management intensity” are immediately followed by the words “water table management” in brackets.

The Government can’t blame the European Commission or the European Parliament for this, it’s part of the national plan to meet our emissions reduction targets.

And Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can’t blame the Green Party for this, they are no longer in office.

I doubt that Michael Healy-Rae, Seán Canney or Noel Grealish will get away with saying “it was like this when we got here”. They entered Government precisely to change the direction the Government had been heading in.

And Martin Heydon, who was a Minister of State when all this was agreed, must now own this issue. Expect the meeting in Athlone this Thursday evening to be noisy, but this battle is only beginning.