Pat O'Toole

Well, it's needed because of what you have just highlighted, all these issues.

separate national objectives, some of which have to do with the National Climate Action Plan, some of which have to do with broad environmental improvement, some of which have to do with targets like the tillage one, where we have strategic targets for agriculture.

So we have all these objectives, but they don't mesh.

They're all competing for the same acre.

So we have this land report, which we could call Schrodinger's report, because until it is revealed and until it prioritises one land use option over another, which means the less preferred land use option has to be binned, and that's a failure of a national strategy, until that moment, all things are possible off that magic acre.

Yeah, that's one of the problems.

And the other problem, of course, is that as soon as you prescribe land use, because certain land types are more suitable for certain uses.

And, for instance, there's a debate among farmers as to whether it's appropriate to take very good, productive farmland out of

agricultural use and put it into solar when less productive farmland is as effective for solar, but not as effective for fruit production.

So, you know, that's a land use priority that is logical.

But culturally in Ireland, we're hostile to planned land management.

And land ownership rights in Ireland are high by international standards.

And that's partly because of our history.

So that is an issue as well, that any planned land use objectives and strategy will put everyone's nose out of joint because no landowner wants to be told what to do with their own plot of land.

Even though most of them are contained within the National Climate Action Plan, which is a government document and legally binding,

The targets that we're to meet are legally binding.

So it's a fudge.

There's no other word for it.

And of course, politicians don't like being forced to tell people what to do, especially on their own land.

And as a result, this has been kicked down the road.