‘Guts of a year’ to draw up Nature Restoration Law plan

The clock is ticking to get a roadmap drawn up that will detail which measures Ireland will implement to meet EU Nature Restoration Law targets out to 2030, as well as the lands that will be targeted for rollout and a source of funding.

However, work cannot yet get underway on drafting the plan itself, as a baseline has first to be established on the levels and quality of biodiversity as they are currently.

Although the plan has to be submitted for European Commission approval by September 2026, processes including public consultation and cabinet sign-off leave just the “guts of a year” to get Ireland’s national restoration plan drafted.

That was what the leaders’ forum on the plan consisting of farming organisations, environmental NGOs, state agencies, department officials and representatives of other interest groups heard on Tuesday in Dublin as consultation on the plan began.

Chairperson

The chair of the independent advisory group tasked with guiding the implementation plan for the Nature Restoration Law is Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin.

We basically have a year, the guts of year, to put it together

“Our national restoration plan must be submitted to the EU by 1 September 2026,” stakeholders were told.

“We basically have a year, the guts of year, to put it together because then it will require public consultation, it will have to go to ministers, it will have to go to cabinet so that’s why we have the guts of a year to put it together.”

The advisory group chair stated that the law itself leaves it open to member states on “deciding how we go about meeting our targets” and it was heard that the legislation will allow Ireland to come up with its own definition of what will qualify for carrying out restoration work, like rewetting peatlands.

Ní Shúilleabháin suggested at Tuesday’s forum that there is no impetus to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if these efforts are complemented by measures to improve biodiversity.

“Climate is maybe the more well-off cousin but maybe we should be talking about nature because they are two sides of the same coin and without nature underpinning everything, it doesn’t really matter, I think, what happens to the climate,” she said.

“Biodiversity, as far as I am concerned, is the main story in town.”