Offaly Councillors slam plan to rewet thousands of hectares of drained farm peatland

OFFALY County Councillors slammed a plan to rewet thousands of hectares of drained farm peatland, during their monthly meeting on Monday afternoon.
A leaked law proposed by the European Commission has indicated that farming on a vast amount of drained farm peatland in Ireland will be severely curtailed or will have to cease completely.
Cllr Danny Owens referred everyone's attention to a recent article in The Irish Independent which stated that farmers might be compelled by the government to increase the watertable on their drained farmland.
“If this happens,” remarked Cllr Owens, “this means that 350,000 hectares of drained agricultural peatland will be reflooded, taking a vast area out of agricultural productivity. It will be a huge impact on farmers and the alarm bells should be ringing. This is being planned for as we speak. It's causing alarm bells to ring all over the place. How will farmers be compensated for this? I was told some months ago by a Minister that it's not going to be a problem. Well, it will in fact be a problem. We need to increase the pressure on this and flag the implications for farmers."
Cllr Liam Quinn said he supported Cllr Owens' comments. “The unknown aspect is very worrying,” he remarked. “It's ironic because back in the 1970s a lot of farmers were grant-aided to drain their peatland to make it agriculturally productive. Now they are being told the opposite.”
Cllr Eddie Fitzpatrick said he is also very worried about this and it will have a massive impact on Offaly. “It will also hugely impact on Offaly County Council because a lot of our roads go through this land. If this becomes a reality small farmers with high costs are not going to survive.”
Cllr John Carroll said he usually tries to be positive in public forums “but it is very hard to be positive today when we are talking about flooding a vast amount of valuable farmland. This will mean a very concerning future for a lot of farmers. The IFA will have to get very vocal on this.
“When it comes to fighting the adverse effects of Climate Change, Ireland has been top of the class. We are doing our very best. And yet we are being treated shoddily by an EU system which seems very bureaucratic and uncaring. And then we hear last week about a proposal to open a coal mine in Cumbria. The mixed messaging is confusing.”
Cllr Carroll said if the drained farm peatland is rewetted then it will make farming financially unviable and will lead to people leaving areas.