Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice has raised stark concerns about the way the word "voluntary" is used in the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) and said "we will suffer the consequences down the road".

The law has now officially been published and will enter into force after 20 days. Ireland now has two years to prepare a national restoration plan, outlining the area that needs to be restored and identifying restoration measures.

Speaking to Agriland following the official publication of the law, Deputy Fitzmaurice said the Irish government needs to ensure that all sections of the NRL will be voluntary for farmers and private property.

The recently published NRL states that rewetting on agricultural land remains voluntary for farmers and private landowners, however, it adds that this is "without prejudice to obligations stemming from national law".

Article 11 of the NRL states that member states shall put in place measures which shall aim to restore organic soils in agricultural use constituting drained peatlands. Those measures shall be in place on at least:

30% of such areas by 2030, of which at least a quarter shall be rewetted;
40% of such areas by 2040, of which at least a third shall be rewetted;
50% of such areas by 2050, of which at least a third shall be rewetted.

Work on Ireland's national restoration plan has already begun by the government. Various government ministers have repeatedly said that any restoration schemes under the law will be "entirely voluntary" for farmers.

Describing the way the word voluntary is used in the law as "spurious", the deputy said member states are obliged to meet a certain percentage of agricultural drained peatlands and that the state "can impose whatever it wants".

Deputy Fitzmaurice also raised concerns about Article 4 which states that member states shall put in place restoration measures to improve to "good condition" areas of habitat types listed in Annex 1 which are "not in good condition".

The habitat types listed in Annex 1 include grasslands, heath and scrub habitats, mires, bogs and fens, wet heaths and peat grassland. This, according to the deputy, assumes that these habitats are "degraded".

When the law is being transposed into national law, the deputy said the state, "in conjunction with working with the farming organisations", needs to put a wording into the law that all sections will be "completely voluntary" on private property or for landowners.

"It's very clearly stated under that law, the percentage of agricultural drained peatland and the question is, where are they [the state] going to get it? Because the state itself doesn't own it," Deputy Fitzmaurice told Agriland.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue has repeatedly said that rewetting targets under the law can be met using state lands, including Bord na Móna and Coillte lands.

"I do urge, as well as politicians doing their bit, that when negotiations start with the farm orgs, that they emphasise that all parts of the Nature Restoration Law would be completely voluntary on private property," he said.

"I still think it's a bad day that this law has came through and we will suffer the consequences down the road," Deputy Fitzmaurice said after the NRL was published in the Official Journal of the European Union yesterday (Monday, July 29).