Under the programme for Government, Ireland is projected to plant 450,000 ha of forestry between now and 2050. That is about 1.1 million acres. In 2023, with all the debacle that has gone on with forestry over recent years, farmers, if they want to apply to plant trees, cannot do so because the Department will tell them that it is waiting for state aid approval. Along with that - this seems to be the week of leaked documents - in Europe a document from the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development, DG AGRI, was leaked which had on its cover a note to top civil servants not to carry it in public, to use encrypted software and, if at all possible, to shred it if anyone sees it. In that document the Commissioner states that there will be major problems under the proposed rewetting or the nature restoration project Europe has proposed. DG AGRI has stated that there will be major problems under the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, major problems for farmers and major problems for the farm-to-fork strategy.

A few months ago, I brought this up here and talked about approximately 800,000 acres that have been proposed in Ireland. There is also a proposal under the nature restoration law relating to 70% of drained peatlands. When I talk about drained peatlands I am talking about the likes of Listowel, where the black and white cows are up and down the field, and a lot of the west of Ireland, where farmers of sheep and suckler cows earn a living on parts of their farms. If this proposal comes to pass, it will decimate a certain part of the country. If what I have talked about is totalled, it is at least 2 million acres. That 2 million acres will go from the top of Donegal down to the bottom of Kerry or out to part of west Cork. It will come out to the midlands. It definitely will not, however, touch the Golden Vale because there are no peatlands there. It definitely will not touch the Hill of Tara, good land in Kildare or a lot of other parts of the country. It will, however, affect small family farms in the areas I have mentioned.

Is it not worrying to the Taoiseach that a Commissioner has a secret document internally in the EU that states very clearly that there are major problems under CAP and major problems for farmers? Politically, this is a hot potato, and still the Taoiseach, as leader of the country, and his Government are now supporting this document or the proposal on the nature rewetting law. Will he or his Government put a halt to what is going on for the sake of the small family farms in the areas I have outlined?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the EU nature restoration law. We support the European Green Deal and support in principle the proposed EU regulation on the nature restoration law. It was published by the Commission in June 2022 and aims to restore nature and biodiversity. The proposed regulation in its current form, however, is very ambitious and goes too far, and we have real concerns about the real challenges that would be posed by its impacts, timing, equity considerations and deliverability. Each relevant Government Department has been asked to undertake as a priority an analysis of the likely sectoral impacts in order to inform a coherent national impact assessment, including the economic cost arising and the impact on farmers and farm families and rural communities, particularly along the western seaboard. Formal negotiations on the regulation began under the Czech EU Presidency and are now continuing under the Swedish Presidency. The expectation is that the regulation will be ratified by the European Parliament and the Council in the middle of this year. Under current proposals, the regulation, once ratified, will come into force and member states, including Ireland, would have two years to prepare a national restoration plan. We would therefore have to have that plan prepared by 2026.

I have not seen any secret documents, I am not aware of them-----

I can email them to the Taoiseach.

-----and it is not possible for me to comment on them.

The Taoiseach said first that the Government supports the proposal, and then he said it has grave concerns. If it has grave concerns, how is it that every other country, including the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, has written back already and most of the countries in the EU have written back opposing this in is present form? Why have we not written back and outlined the things in it that the Government is concerned about? We had representatives of the Directorate General for Environment, DG ENV, before our agriculture committee last week. They are not concerned about the Government doing an analysis in Ireland. They made very clear to us at the committee that they had taken an overall look at this. When we asked them what the consequences of this will be in Ireland, they said they look at it on an overall basis, not country by country. We are unique in this regard. I ask the Taoiseach to put a halt to what is going on. The Government should not ratify this or the Taoiseach and his Government will be the cause of small family farms in the west, north west and south west of Ireland being driven out of business on account of this. There is time for the Taoiseach to act and I ask him to do so.

As I said, we support the European Green Deal and, in principle, the EU nature restoration law. I think all of us want to see nature restored, an end to biodiversity loss and the restoration of biodiversity across our country. There are, however, aspects of this that are very ambitious and go too far, in my view. We are carrying out a national impact assessment so we are developing a position on the EU nature restoration law. It is being led by the National Parks and Wildlife Service but is cross-government. An interdepartmental group has been established, as has a senior officials group, and there will be a memo to the Cabinet very soon setting out the Government's position on it. Of course we will have regard to the impact on farmers, farm families and rural communities, particularly down the western seaboard. I appreciate the concerns the Deputy has raised in that regard.