Mr Healy-Rae’s stated plans have been roundly condemned by academics, conservationists and environmental campaigners since he unveiled them in the Seanad two weeks ago.
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman challenged the Government during Leaders Questions in the Dáil on Thursday to explain if this was now official coalition policy.
“Just to be crystal clear, a policy of planting on peatlands that we have spent years trying to restore, trying to preserve, this policy would be environmental madness,” he said.
“Aside from being a breach of EU law and Irish policy, it would destroy an extremely delicate, extremely complex habitat that can provide a large and effective part of Ireland’s capacity to store carbon.”
Mr O’Gorman cited one of the country’s foremost peatlands experts, Dr Florence Renou of University College Dublin, who said the plan was not a viable option.
“Is it the policy of the new Government to ignore science, to abandon our legal obligations and to destroy some of our best chances to capture carbon while preserving unique habitats?” he asked.
Education Minister Helen McEntee who was answering on behalf of the Government said all options had to be examined for planting forestry but she insisted all plans would be backed by science.
Mr O’Gorman asked why then Mr Healy-Rae had announced, in comments later repeated outside the Seanad, that he had instructed his officials to move to planting on peatland.
“Is he being allowed to indulge in a bit of Trump-lite – be anti-science, be anti-climate while purporting to speak for the people?” he said.
“Instead of ‘drill, baby, drill’, it’s dig, drain and destroy.”
He said either the senior agriculture minister, Martin Heydon, or Mr Healy-Rae, should come before the Dáil and explain what was going on.
Ireland has some of the sparsest tree cover in the EU and the Government has a target of increasing forest cover for climate, biodiversity and commercial reasons.
Mr Healy-Rae said, however, that farmers did not want to plant on grassland that they used for livestock and should be allowed plant on peatlands instead.
Some planting is allowed on shallow peatlands that have been drained and stripped so much that they have largely lost their potential to capture and store carbon.
However, the general policy is to protect peatlands that are still intact or have potential to be restored.
That means removing drains from them and allowing them to naturally rewet which puts them out of scope for forestry.
The Irish Peatland Conservation Council was among the groups that criticised Mr Healy-Rae, saying his policies would “have severe environmental consequences and undermine Ireland’s commitments to biodiversity and climate action”.
“Ireland’s Peatlands are meant to be open landscapes, and treating them as wastelands and only seeing them as areas to destroy and turn into industrial forestry is not recognising their importance,” said policy officer Tristram Whyte.
#Green #leader #accuses #Michael #HealyRae #Trumplite #environmental #madness #row #peatlands
