Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 May 2023
438. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will provide details on the planned economic impact assessment around the proposed nature restoration law; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26373/23]
View answerThe proposed Nature Restoration Regulation provides an opportunity for transformative change in relation to achieving nature restoration in Ireland and the EU as a whole. While much of the recent focus has been on rewetting and agricultural impacts, the proposed regulation covers a huge range of land and marine options - urban, agricultural, river, marine and forest environments.
The impact assessment underpinning the NRL proposal estimated the total financing needs for nature restoration in the EU at €6 to €8 billion per year. This assessment points to the fact that the economic benefits of nature restoration far outweigh its costs. Every euro invested in nature restoration is estimated to result in at least €8 in benefits.
How this benefit translates to an Irish context is difficult to calculate due to the unknown variables relating to current available data, quantification of areas affected/to be restored, monitoring of data and impact of the overall restoration obligations on areas beyond the Natura network remit.
Under the nature restoration proposal, Member States are required to estimate in their national restoration plans the financing needs for implementing restoration measures. This shall include a description of the support to stakeholders affected by restoration measures and the means of intended financing, public or private, including co-financing with EU funding instruments.
A high level assessment of the cost of compliance will be undertaken over the summer, once clarity on the proposal emerges, to accurately calculate the investment needed to support the transformative changes required to meet the proposed targets. This assessment will form a key part of the overal stakeholder engagement to be undertaken.
An assessment of how allocations under existing programmes can be maximised to support achievement of the objectives under the proposed Regulation will be required and budgets additional to existing funding instruments will need to be considered. New funding mechanisms may also need to be examined, such as models that leverage private finance, and those that incentivise nature restoration actions to be delivered by non-governmental sectors.
