Beautiful bogs part of Ireland's offering to the EU says Offaly MEP

MEP Grace O’Sullivan reflects upon Ireland’s membership of the EU and its impact on our relationship with nature

BEING a part of the European Union has opened doors for Ireland, but the impact that this membership has had on a local level has been enormous. Ireland joining the European Union has created partnership and boosted our nation's diplomacy and economy.

While we have made significant progress over the last 50 years, which we should celebrate, we also have a long way to go to ensure Ireland continues to improve in areas such as gender, the environment, and cost of living.

While top-down progress is needed for Ireland in these areas, the work that is being done at a local level makes a significant and impressive impact on our country's social, economic and environmental development.

I am an MEP for Ireland South, representing 12 counties, all of which have something unique to offer Ireland and the EU.

Offaly’s natural heritage, its wetlands and bogs, are almost synonymous with Ireland itself. This landscape is so significant to Ireland that the Bog of Allen is even etched into the final lines of James Joyce’s Dubliners.

It is a county that is rich in nature the value of which, up until recently, has been almost entirely ignored by successive governments in Dublin. This is why the incredible diversity of life found in Irish bogs is protected under The EU Habitats Directive and the EU LIFE programme and is now also a central part of the European Green Deal to tackle climate change and restore nature’s central place in society.

EU protections like these recognise the value of Ireland’s raised-bogs as entirely unique landscapes, as homes to previously unknown biodiversity, and as priceless carbon sinks and stores.

In school we were always taught that forests and woods breathe in carbon dioxide and help fight climate change. We were never taught that peatlands and bogs are the largest carbon store on the entire planet, and Ireland is home to some of the best on Earth. Clara Bog for example has been recognised as one of the most important raised bogs in Europe.

Protecting our beautiful natural Irish environment is just as important as prioritising social and economic development. Up until the Green Party started in politics, Ireland essentially only introduced measures on environmental protection whenever the European Commission pointed out that the Government was failing in its duty to nature and to the people who rely on it.

Among the most well known environmental milestones over the years were the Birds and Habitats Directives which have helped protect vulnerable species and ecosystems across the country.

Now the European Green Deal is putting in place Europe's most ambitious climate targets and policies to date, including at least a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2023. Under the European Green Deal, the EU aims to expand and develop its Marine Protected Areas, to cover 30% of Ireland’s seas by 2030.

As an ocean activist campaigning with Greenpeace on the high seas throughout the 1980s, it was particularly moving to see Ireland be one of the first movers to implement this.

Just this year Minister Malcolm Noonan initiated the most significant marine protection legislation in the history of the State, setting up a new State agency for marine development and putting in place massive new Marine Protected Areas.

Ireland has always had a lot to offer both the EU and the planet, and we must continue to protect our natural environment so that we can keep contributing and learning on a European level.

This is what the heart of a democracy looks like, 27 member states working cohesively on issues that impact us all.