The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers' Association (INHFA) president, Vincent Roddy said that farmers have been "thrown under the bus" by land designations at the first meeting of the leaders’ forum on nature restoration.

The meeting today (March 25) was the beginning of an extensive consultation process to inform the development of a national nature restoration plan.

Stakeholders from across the agriculture sector attended the event, and voiced their opinions about the direction the plan should take.

Roddy told the meeting about the "abhorrence" that farmers have for land designations.

"I’m here as a farmer that has been working on designated land. When we look at how the designations have been applied and the impact that they have on farmers, and the abhorrence farmers have for designations.

"The designations have failed not just for farmers, but for nature. You have to understand why most farmers will look at this, take a deep breath and say, are we going to be thrown under the bus again here?

"Because there is no point in saying otherwise, we have been thrown under the bus when it came to designations," Roddy said.

A spokesperson for the farmers organisation Talamh Beo questioned what impact the plan would have on farmers.

"My comment is about how farmers are impacted on the ground, there was a word that has been used, voluntary. I think we should use the word participatory," he said.

"The most effective schemes are the ones that farmers are involved in directly. That seems like a huge logistical challenge, I think it’s the most effective to take advantage of the opportunity that we have," he added.

The spokesperson also questioned how implementing the plan would work.

"The second thing is implementation, I’m wondering, since there are so many stakeholders involved, is there an idea of how these plans will be implemented? Who is going to take responsibility for that? I think that’s a key question," he concluded.

Head of policy and advocacy at Birdwatch Ireland, Oonagh Duggan questioned what role her organisation could play in the plan.

"I’m just wondering how the relationship between the stakeholders and working groups will work, at all," she said.

"Bird Watch Ireland would be practitioners on the ground, doing conservation work, how will we be able to feed into the technical work about restoration for bird species? I’m not sure how we engage with our expertise," she added.