The Moment That Has Been Coming for Two Years
The EU Nature Restoration Law came into force on 18 August 2024. It was one of the most hard-fought pieces of European environmental law in recent memory. Farming groups and some governments pushed back hard, and the European Parliament came close to rejecting it before voting it through. The law requires member states to put restoration measures in place across at least 20% of the EU's land and sea areas by 2030. Tougher targets follow for 2040 and 2050, and they cover every kind of habitat, from grasslands, forests and wetlands to rivers, the sea and urban green space.
Every member state had until 1 September 2026 to send a draft National Restoration Plan to the European Commission. Ireland met that deadline and submitted its draft on 1 September, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage confirmed in a Dáil reply on 16 September 2026. A formal 12-month dialogue with the Commission now begins. The Commission is due to send back formal feedback in early 2027, a second round of public consultation follows, and the final plan goes to Brussels by 1 September 2027. That final plan sets out Ireland's legally binding restoration commitments to 2030, 2040 and 2050.
Why Ireland's Plan Matters
Ireland is starting from a difficult place, and the Government has said so openly. The Article 17 report, published by Minister of State Christopher O'Sullivan on 11 December 2025, found that 90% of Ireland's EU-protected habitats are in unfavourable conservation status, and 51% are showing declining trends. Decades of drainage, peat extraction, intensive farming and development have worn down the character of the Irish countryside.
The same report also brought good news. 9% of habitats are now improving, mostly in places where focused conservation work has been carried out. Species are doing better too: 58% are in favourable conservation status, and over two-thirds are stable or improving. That is the case for restoration in a nutshell. Where Ireland has put in the effort, nature has responded.
The advice on how to scale that up came in April 2026. The Independent Advisory Committee set up to make recommendations on the plan said Ireland needs a dedicated, multi-annual nature restoration fund worth potentially up to €700 million a year. That fund would pay farmers, other landowners and fishers to let certain habitats recover. It would also invest directly in restoration projects and strengthen the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The committee's message was clear: saving Ireland's nature will take hundreds of millions of euro and a real change of mindset in Government. Minister O'Sullivan has since said a dedicated cross-departmental fund will be needed on top of existing environmental schemes.
How Is It Actually Going Now?
The groundwork is moving. The first public consultation on the draft plan ran this summer, and the committee's recommendations were published in full. Government investment in the NPWS has risen year on year, and in 2026 its core budget passed €100 million for the first time, which has paid for significant recruitment at every level of the service.
Restoration is also already happening on the ground at scale. Under the Bord na Móna Peatlands Climate Action Scheme, which covers around 33,000 hectares of previously harvested bog, 24,503 hectares had been rehabilitated by the end of May 2026. That work restores wetland habitat and locks carbon back into the ground, both at once. It gives the new plan a working model to build on rather than a blank page.
What the Plan Is Expected to Cover
Given what the EU law requires and Ireland's own habitat priorities, the final plan is expected to set targets across several key areas. Peatland restoration is expected to be a central pillar, because Ireland has so much degraded bog and because restoring it helps wildlife and the climate at the same time.
River and wetland restoration is a second major priority, tackling the water quality and habitat loss that have pushed much of Ireland's freshwater habitat into unfavourable status. Farmland will be the part of the plan with the widest reach, since most of Ireland's land is farmed. That work includes reconnecting and improving hedgerows, bringing back wildflower-rich grasslands and creating field margins through agri-environment schemes. Marine restoration covers the seagrass beds, kelp forests and saltmarshes along Ireland's long coastline. They are less visible than habitats on land, but they matter just as much.
Communities Are Already Doing the Work
The clearest sign of the local action the plan will depend on is the Biodiversity Fund run by Community Foundation Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The partnership was set up in 2019, and this year's grants will take the number of community biodiversity action plans nationwide past 300. Projects cover forests, rivers, peatlands, coastal habitats and the species that depend on them.
The 2026 funding round is open now. Biodiversity Action Plan Development grants of €6,000 to €10,000 help communities work with an ecologist to map local nature and set priorities. Implementation grants of €12,000 and up help them carry out those plans. What makes the model work is the partnership itself: local energy and local knowledge, backed by professional ecological expertise.
This matters because restoration at landscape scale depends on decisions made by landowners, farmers and communities all over the country, not just on how the State manages its protected sites. With more than 300 community plans in place, Ireland is building exactly the kind of spread-out, locally rooted conservation capacity the EU law needs.
The Bottom Line
By sending its draft plan to Brussels on 1 September 2026, Ireland has started the formal process that will define its legal restoration commitments under EU law. The 2025 Article 17 report shows how much work lies ahead, with 90% of protected habitats in unfavourable condition. It also shows that focused conservation works, and that nature bounces back when it is given the chance. Over the next 12 months, as the draft becomes the final plan due in September 2027, the key question is whether a dedicated nature fund on the scale the advisory committee recommended goes into it. If it does, the bog restorers, NPWS rangers and more than 300 community groups already at work will have the backing to turn a legal obligation into a national recovery.