Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have never heard of a controlled burning getting out of control. Normally the rules are so stringent that cannot happen. We need to get to the nub of this and we have a problem with overgrowth on the hills. Some of that is due to overly prescriptive destocking. The question is how to control this vegetation that is highly lethal in very dry months. Is it better to have a controlled system of "a stitch in time"? We know controlled burning does not get out of control but uncontrolled burning does all the time.

We inherited from previous generations a fantastic ecology in the hills. European grants initially upset that because of overstocking and we tried to rectify that but it was like a rocking boat and it fell the other way in certain cases.

All sorts of things were changed and many of them by outside forces. I have spent a long time working with farmers. Rather than bringing a very narrow science, for generations they developed a management system that balanced everything, including wildlife, ecology and the birds that we all value. I often think that if we involved farmers more, and took more of the old advice that gave us the ecology we have then we would have a better set up. Instead, we lurch all over the place bringing in laws without consulting the one group of people who really understand the interlacing of everything in their areas and we often, in my view, do more harm than good.

I live in the hills of Connemara. I do not own land myself and it is a long time since I had responsibility for farming in the west of Ireland. Living in Connemara and working with farmers every week and every day I know there are virtually no farmers who want to destroy the ecology of their hills because they live off it, want a mixed ecology and want to protect wildlife. They will recognise controlled burning taking place now and again as being preferable to the alternative that they will get, partly through nature and maybe through other people lighting fires on their land or neighbouring land, which is uncontrolled burning. I reiterate what I have said before. People have totally misrepresented the issue here. All I keep hearing from people who oppose this proposal is about uncontrolled burning. The proposal was made to control uncontrolled burning and I believe that the section should remain in the Bill.