Big interview: Christopher O'Sullivan on the NPWS buying land and designations

Of the many idiosyncrasies of rural Ireland the late John B Keane picked up on, it is land that stands above the parapet in terms of impact.

While the Bull McCabe driving his cattle off a cliff and killing his son Tadhg in the process is a fictionalised scene, John B’s work always stemmed from a grain of truth.

Indeed, many theorise the Irish have such an attachment to land because we were displaced from it.

When someone is buying land, we’re interested. When someone is prolific in buying land we’re uneasy; be that bloodstock billionaires, Kerry business tycoons or even a Government body.

As of June 2025, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) had bought 7,060ac of land since 2020 at an average of €4,263/ac for some of the most valuable land for nature in the country.

Of course, the State has given a commitment to rewet lands as required under the Nature Restoration Law on publicly owned lands, meaning more of the latter may be required.

Sitting down with the Irish Farmers Journal recently in the heart of his Cork southwest constituency, Minister of State with responsibility for nature, biodiversity and heritage Christopher O’Sullivan addressed head-on the NPWS’s procuring of land.

The NPWS falls under his remit and Minister O’Sullivan was adamant land purchased by the body does not impact farmers.

“I make no apologies for that (buying land). I think this whole thing about the NPWS buying land and out-competing farmers is complete codswallop. It’s been blown out of proportion. It’s not true,” he stated.

The Irish Farmers Journal put it to the minister that farmers feel the NPWS is buying a lot of land in recent years.

He cited the small percentage of overall land sold the NPWS was successful in buying, which he said is in or around 2%, as well as the fact that 27% of the land bought by the body of late was peatland.

“I would push back strongly on that. In the vast, vast majority of cases we don’t participate in bidding wars where we’re in against local farmers.

“In most cases, it’s where a landowner has approached us or we’ve approached a landowner directly.

“So this thing where we’re buying up land, we’re displacing farmers, impeding young farmers from getting into farming, is absolutely incorrect,” he said.

Looking to 2026, Minister O’Sullivan said the NPWS will continue “to purchase strategically key acquisitions where we see there’s a high nature value”.

Pointing to its budget, the minister said the NPWS’s capital funding has increased by 20% and while a portion of that has gone towards land acquisitions, it is also his intention to use this budget bounce to roll-out a new scheme.

Or rather, significantly expand an existing scheme.

Farm Plan Plus

Farm Plan is a results based agri-environmental scheme operated by the NPWS at present on a small scale.

Farmers are paid for the results they deliver based on a bespoke plan, typically running for five years. One-off actions are also available.

In 2025, some 200 applicants were approved entry to the scheme. Minister O’Sullivan said it is his intention to increase the number of participants.

“We want to increase that to thousands and I want that payment to be additional to the basic payment and potentially an ACRES payment that they may get.

“In other words, I do not want to see a situation when it comes to incentivising farmers where we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. The Farm Plan expansion that I’m talking about would be an additional payment on top of other payments that exist,” he added.

Designations

Similar to the former minister in his brief, Minister O’Sullivan said new designations are not on the cards for land.

On designations, he also stated that he understands farmer frustrations around this, which he puts down to lack of consultation.

“There’s ill will I think towards a lot of these designations because many years ago when the designations happened, it was done with lack of consultation.

“And people feel aggrieved, especially farmers who are farming in Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) or Special Protection Areas (SPA), because they’ve been restricted in how they can farm, because it’s an important habitat, but that hasn’t been acknowledged or incentivised,” he said.

To that end, the minister revealed a new report will come out in the new year which will calculate how much money farmers have lost to designations.

“We have a report coming out at the start of the next year being done by Mazars, and that report will identify the financial loss to farmers who farm in designated areas. That will inform the next steps.

“I would love to see a situation where those who are farming in designated areas are incentivised and that’s acknowledged,” he added.

The day before we sat down with Minister O’Sullivan a report came out which stated that 90% of Ireland’s protected habitats are in unfavourable conservation status.

Habitats

Just over half of these habitats are showing deteriorating trends across their national ranges, which includes sites that are designated as SAC, as well as the wider countryside.

While the minister described this as a “sucker punch”, he said there are positives to be taken, including that where targeted measures such as EIPs have been introduced, improvements have been seen.

“I’m very confident that once you get a critical mass of farmer signed up that you’ll see real differences,” he said.

Minister O’Sullivan’s role is to look after nature on the land, while the vast majority of farmers must make a living from it while also caring for it.

Either way, it all comes back to land at the end of the day.