Latest ECJ ruling an assault on food production and common sense - Fitzmaurice

Latest ECJ ruling an assault on food production and common sense - Fitzmaurice

"Yet another direct threat to Irish farming"

Independent Ireland agriculture spokesperson Michael Fitzmaurice TD has slammed a recent European Court of Justice ruling under the EU Birds Directive, warning that it represents a serious and dangerous escalation in regulatory overreach that could undermine everyday farming and forestry activity in Ireland.

Deputy Fitzmaurice said the judgement raises a fundamental and deeply troubling question for Irish farmers: are we now being told that we cannot plough our own land to grow food because it might impact bird populations?

“If that is the direction this ruling is taking us, then it is lunacy of the highest order,” he said. “Ploughing land, reseeding grass, and managing farms are not optional activities. They are the basis of food production.”

The ruling, which significantly expands the scope of activities that may require prior assessment or restriction under the Birds Directive, risks placing normal farming practices into the same legal category as large-scale developments, Deputy Fitzmaurice warned.

“This judgement epitomises EU overreach,” he said. “It reflects a mindset where European courts feel entitled to interfere in the most basic, long-established activities carried out by farmers who already operate under strict environmental rules.”

"Applied to forestry, the implications become even more farcical. Routine and responsible forest management — thinning, felling, replanting — risks being recast as a legal minefield rather than a necessary part of sustainable land use. Forestry owners and contractors, who already operate under some of the most stringent environmental rules in the country, are left to wonder whether managing their land now requires a solicitor on site. If common sense continues to be replaced by abstract interpretation, forestry risks being regulated into paralysis, where trees are easier left unmanaged than responsibly cared for." 

Deputy Fitzmaurice said Irish farmers are being steadily squeezed between climate policy, environmental regulation and legal uncertainty, often driven by interpretations that bear little relation to how farming actually works on the ground.

“Irish farmers are not environmental vandals. They are custodians of the land,” he said. “But there is a growing sense that food production itself is being treated as a problem, rather than a necessity.”

He said the European Court of Justice is increasingly acting as a driver of climate and environmental absolutism, with little regard for food security, rural livelihoods or proportionality.

“You cannot regulate a country into feeding itself less,” he said. “At some point, someone has to stand up and say that enough is enough.”

Deputy FItzmaurice said the Irish Government must urgently clarify the practical implications of the ruling and resist any attempt to apply it in a way that would paralyse routine farming and forestry activity, "A ruling that goes as far attempting to micro manage the most basic of tasks such as mowing a meadow or driving a car means something has gone very wrong."

“This country cannot sleepwalk into a situation where farmers are afraid to plough, plant or manage their land,” Deputy Fitzmaurice said. “If that happens, then policy has completely lost touch with reality and the facts are that this madness will encourage civil disobedience”