Both Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon and his department officials have sought to downplay the importance of a recent rewetting meeting from which farmers were excluded.
The meeting, which included Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Teagasc and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) delegates, focused on how to reduce the level of farming intensity and potentially rewetting of 80,000ha in order to meet targets set in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan.
Minister Martin Heydon told the Irish Farmers Journal on Tuesday that it was an overstatement to call the gathering a key meeting and assured farmers that they would be consulted when the time comes to make decisions.
“It is incumbent on us, across the Department, across a range of different sectors, to do modelling, to look at different elements, so that we can make the best case possible around a range of different interventions or policy interventions that might be needed,” the Minister said.
Prospects
“Officials will have meetings, will discuss different prospects of policies coming down from Europe, how we might formulate a response and then that will be put in a briefing note or for me to advise me around key decisions to be made,” he said.
“If people think that farm bodies are at every single meeting that ever happens in the Department of Agriculture, that's not practical, but I can assure you, they’re at the ones that matter, where there's proper consultation.
This bogland around Gartan Lake was voluntarily rewet in order to help protect freshwater mussels. \ Clive Wasson
“I need a certain level of work done before I get to a point to consider all the facts and to make any key decisions. And when the time comes to make decisions, all the key stakeholders will be consulted properly by me,” he pledged.
“I listen to them and take their points of view on board as well and that's how things will operate into the future. So there is no need for farmers to be concerned about meetings that don't have people in them.”
‘Exploratory workshop’
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture further outlined the background to the meeting which has sparked an emergency meeting by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), set to take place on Thursday 6 March in Athlone.
“The Department recently held an exploratory workshop as mechanism to frame a pathway and develop a policy paper in the context of achieving this target.
"This was an exploratory meeting and is a standard component of policy development, most usually done using internal expertise, but in this case tapping into wider experienced practitioners in the field, to examine the area of reduced management intensity.
“This included projects such as those under the European Innovation Partnership (EIPs) programme, ACRES co-operation, life projects and experience for across other Government departments and agencies,” the spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“This initial workshop is the first phase in assisting the Department in its considerations. Any developments in this area will include broader consultation, including with farm organisations.
“There are several bodies of work ongoing in relation to mapping organic-rich soils such as RePEAT funded by DAFM and the EPA and the Teagasc D-TECT project. Advances in mapping will, in time, provide greater information in the context of rewetting land.”
Addressing fears that farmers could be compelled to rewet land that they had previously drained, the spokesperson said: “Any output of these deliberations on supporting emission reduction on peat soils will be voluntary in nature.”
IFA emergency meeting
Two Department officials will address the IFA meeting on Thursday, which was called to address what the IFA called “policy threats to farming on peat soils”.
IFA deputy president Alice Doyle. \ Philip Doyle
IFA deputy president Alice Doyle will chair the meeting and the speakers will include:
Dr Pat Touhy, senior research officer, Teagasc.Paul Savage, assistant secretary general, Department of Agriculture. Michael Moloney, senior inspector, Department of Agriculture. Tadhg Buckley, director of policy, IFA. Read more
State push to rewet land
IFA blasts Department's 'closed-door' meeting on rewetting plans
Plan to cut farming on 80,000ha of peat soils
Both Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon and his department officials have sought to downplay the importance of a recent rewetting meeting from which farmers were excluded.
The meeting, which included Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Teagasc and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) delegates, focused on how to reduce the level of farming intensity and potentially rewetting of 80,000ha in order to meet targets set in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan.
Minister Martin Heydon told the Irish Farmers Journal on Tuesday that it was an overstatement to call the gathering a key meeting and assured farmers that they would be consulted when the time comes to make decisions.
“It is incumbent on us, across the Department, across a range of different sectors, to do modelling, to look at different elements, so that we can make the best case possible around a range of different interventions or policy interventions that might be needed,” the Minister said.
Prospects
“Officials will have meetings, will discuss different prospects of policies coming down from Europe, how we might formulate a response and then that will be put in a briefing note or for me to advise me around key decisions to be made,” he said.
“If people think that farm bodies are at every single meeting that ever happens in the Department of Agriculture, that's not practical, but I can assure you, they’re at the ones that matter, where there's proper consultation.
This bogland around Gartan Lake was voluntarily rewet in order to help protect freshwater mussels. \ Clive Wasson
“I need a certain level of work done before I get to a point to consider all the facts and to make any key decisions. And when the time comes to make decisions, all the key stakeholders will be consulted properly by me,” he pledged.
“I listen to them and take their points of view on board as well and that's how things will operate into the future. So there is no need for farmers to be concerned about meetings that don't have people in them.”
‘Exploratory workshop’
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture further outlined the background to the meeting which has sparked an emergency meeting by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), set to take place on Thursday 6 March in Athlone.
“The Department recently held an exploratory workshop as mechanism to frame a pathway and develop a policy paper in the context of achieving this target.
"This was an exploratory meeting and is a standard component of policy development, most usually done using internal expertise, but in this case tapping into wider experienced practitioners in the field, to examine the area of reduced management intensity.
“This included projects such as those under the European Innovation Partnership (EIPs) programme, ACRES co-operation, life projects and experience for across other Government departments and agencies,” the spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“This initial workshop is the first phase in assisting the Department in its considerations. Any developments in this area will include broader consultation, including with farm organisations.
“There are several bodies of work ongoing in relation to mapping organic-rich soils such as RePEAT funded by DAFM and the EPA and the Teagasc D-TECT project. Advances in mapping will, in time, provide greater information in the context of rewetting land.”
Addressing fears that farmers could be compelled to rewet land that they had previously drained, the spokesperson said: “Any output of these deliberations on supporting emission reduction on peat soils will be voluntary in nature.”
IFA emergency meeting
Two Department officials will address the IFA meeting on Thursday, which was called to address what the IFA called “policy threats to farming on peat soils”.
IFA deputy president Alice Doyle. \ Philip Doyle
IFA deputy president Alice Doyle will chair the meeting and the speakers will include:
Dr Pat Touhy, senior research officer, Teagasc.Paul Savage, assistant secretary general, Department of Agriculture. Michael Moloney, senior inspector, Department of Agriculture. Tadhg Buckley, director of policy, IFA. Read more
State push to rewet land
IFA blasts Department's 'closed-door' meeting on rewetting plans
Plan to cut farming on 80,000ha of peat soils
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