Mr. Padraic Joyce:

To answer Mr. Fogarty, because of the complaint he made to the EU Commission, it is coming near Christmas and many farmers have not received their basic payment, which is their livelihood, and the Chairman spoke about this in his opening address. I want to make the committee aware that two things can start a fire. I saw it quite close to my place last year. Mr. Fogarty may have noticed that fires normally start along a roadside. I spoke earlier about dumping along roads. If glass has been dumped, and if the grass has withered off, it can start a fire with heat. As Deputy Fitzmaurice said, cigarette butts thrown out of cars will start a fire. No farmer has been brought to court for starting a fire because farmers do not start fires.