Walsh says ‘pointing fingers’ won’t help nature restoration law conflict

Maria Walsh MEP has said she takes fault in her communication around the EU’s controversial nature restoration laws.

Under the proposed laws, 20 percent of forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers, lakes and corals in member states must be restored to ‘good’ status by 2030. 

While priority is to be given to areas already with protected status, farming organisations have expressed fears that farmers would be forced to re-wet farmland under these measures.

The Midlands Northwest representative, and other Fine Gael MEPs, came under fire after they voted for the nature restoration laws last year, and went against her party (the European People's Party Group).

At the time, Ms Walsh explained that she was voting to ‘keep the text alive’, but said she had ‘a number of issues with the text’.

Speaking to The Mayo News on the topic, the Fine Gael European election candidate said she takes ‘fault’ in not being ‘clear-cut and communicative’ around the laws.

The European People’s Party, Fine Gael’s grouping in the European Parliament, voted for the law - which was stalled by the Council of the European Union recently after a number of EU states refused to back the legislation. 

The former Rose of Tralee was responding to criticism from Independent Mayo County Councillor John O’Malley, who described Fine Gael’s decision to vote for the nature restoration law as ‘pure crazy’. 

The current Midlands Northwest MEP explained how she meets with farmers on a weekly basis, both those part and not part of organisations.

“It's funny around nature restoration, any farmers that I'm speaking to right across the constituency and Midlands Northwest, speaking to large, small, part-time, full-time farmers- It's funny that the sentiment and the urgency around nature restoration is understood, it’s how we communicate it and as a political representative sitting in Europe, you know, I have to take fault with the fact that I have not been clear-cut and communicative,” said Ms Walsh.

“Nature restoration law already has built into it funding for those who voluntarily want to feed their land into nature restoration. We have commitments from the government, that the state owned land as it is now, will meet those requirements, but what we also know in the past few days that some councils have changed their opinion which is disappointing because the amount of work that has gone into nature restoration, and ultimately sentiment from farmers understanding that our nature and our biodiversity laws has to increase. 

“I mean, just this week, you see many farmers having issues with fodder and the very, very wetlands we have here in the West of Ireland, where you can't let cattle out, but yet it's the time of year to do that, and that just goes to show you how our climate is really impacting the way we farm.”

The Shrule native said she has been ‘very, very strong’ on her commitment to ensuring the next Common Agricultural Policy does ‘what it says and sets out for’.

“Pay farmers to produce food at a low cost to consumers, and right now as consumers, we're getting very, very good food for very cheap prices, and the only people that's feeling that impact are our farmers, which is certainly not okay,” commented Ms Walsh. 

She further explained how Irish produce is not just feeding Europeans, but ‘millions of people around the world’.

“The produce our farmers are exporting is billions, and we need to ensure that they're doing that at the most sustainable point.

Ms Walsh concluded: “I know the frustrations are there, I hear them, and it's important that we share, and we listen, and then we build together. I don't think pointing fingers from one to the other is going to get us anywhere faster, but [the concerns] are certainly being felt and heard”.

Independent councillor John O’Malley said he was ‘totally disappointed’ with how Irish MEPs, especially the Fine Gael MEPs, voted on the law.

Just two Irish MEPs – Independent Luke Ming Flanagan and Sinn Féin’s Chris Mac Manus of Midlands North West – voted against it when it came before the European Parliament in February. 

“The EPP begged them not to vote [for it] because the EPP voted against it, and they voted for it and when the first measure was introduced a few weeks back, they went down on their knees and begged them not to vote for it,” said Cllr O’Malley.

“If somebody votes against Fine Gael above in the Dáil, he’s out, but it’s alright for them to be abroad in Europe and to vote against their grouping’. 

“Sure jays like it’s pure crazy to vote for something when you don’t know what the rules and regulations are, ‘vote for it anyhow, but sure we’ll deal with it when it’s coming’, but you can’t deal with it now.

Speaking on what is happening now as a result of the vote, Cllr O’Malley explained that people have to re-wet land that they ‘reclaimed from their fathers before them and their grandfathers’.

“In my own area, they won’t clean the river, and they spent €950,000 to put in flood defences, and they never took a spoonful out of the river, now the river is flowing over, and it’s going into a septic tank…I’m blue in the face asking them to clean the river and to take a bit out of it,

“But they want to go back and flood the whole area. I looked it up, 1760 was when it was drained first, and now they want to go back to that,” concluded Mr O’Malley.