When it puts its mind to it, the State can execute a plan with razor-sharp intention. Food Harvest 2020 is the proof. One rainy day in July 2010 – the same day Ireland’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s – the government announced a huge export-led intensification plan, funded with millions of euro of public money, for the Irish food and agriculture industry. The strategy, led by a 30-person committee (of which just one was an environmentalist), went on to exceed almost every commercial target it set. By 2019, agri-food exports had passed €13 billion, above the €12 billion target set a decade earlier.
The ecological ledger since then – collapsing river quality, ammonia pollution, 90 per cent of protected habitats in unfavourable condition – is, in part, what Ireland’s first national Nature Restoration Plan exists to address.
Last month, the Independent Advisory Committee (IAC) on Nature Restoration handed its recommendations to Minister of State Christopher O’Sullivan. This time, the committee was inclusive – the Irish Farmers’ Association, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association and a fishing representative sat alongside Birdwatch Ireland, ecologists and a former senior official from the European Commission’s nature unit. The key takeaway from their recommendations is simple: the State must provide specific, adequate, ring-fenced funding.
