Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

-----and it will cause problems. Indeed, both wet and dry weather will equally cause problems. Strong winds over the past weekend have led to a rapid spread of these fires which have damaged forests and threatened houses. The nature of the soil and vegetation in upland areas is such that it is combustible and long-burning during periods of hot, dry weather. Also, the recent cold winter has removed a considerable amount of vegetation and exposed the dry, peat-type vegetation to the sun.

The response to the recent spate of grassland, forest, bog and other wildfires constitutes a significant drain on resources. However, it is important that we look after the human dimension as well as all of the other aspects of the natural terrain in order to ensure that resources are not standing in the way of ensuring that people are protected.

The fires have destroyed valuable forestry and impacted on habitats, flora and fauna and the economic cost of fires that spread across the north west and midlands is substantial. It is estimated that up to 4,000 acres of timber on privately and State-owned woodland has been destroyed.

The response also has been resource intensive. Significant costs have been incurred at a time when resources are stretched. It poses risks to personnel attending such incidents and I want to put on record my appreciation of the staff of the fire service and other services who on a daily basis put themselves in the line of fire as front-line service providers for whatever incident arises. Worryingly, it diverts resources of the fire and emergency services away from responding to other incidents. A fire appliance tackling a gorse fire may not be available to attend other life threatening incidents and there is a real possibility of tragic outcomes.

Disturbingly, there is suspicion that many of the fires were started deliberately and maliciously. Burning of vegetation by landowners is illegal between 1 March and 31 August of each year under the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000. I echo the comments the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee. I agree that it is completely unacceptable for a person to act so thoughtlessly as to set fire to vegetation and walk away from the consequences of that action, when those consequences could destroy the lives and livelihoods of their neighbours. All rural dwellers, farmers, forest owners, landowners, especially those who own, rent, lease or manage commonage, should unite in their response against the unacceptable behaviour of a small minority of careless and reckless people.

The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government's main role is to ensure that fire authorities are equipped and geared to respond promptly and effectively to tackle the worst effects of land and forest fires. The provision of a fire service in its functional area and the assessment of fire cover needs having regard to the nature of the fire hazards and the probable incidence and extent of fires in its area is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under section 10 of the Fire Services Act 1981.

The suggestion to have an integrated response does, indeed, have merit and it has occurred in this case, and I take on board the suggestions that have been made about putting it on a more formal setting. In order to tackle the problem of illegal and uncontrolled burning the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food established last year the Land and Forest Fires Working Group. The group comprised representatives from the emergency services, forest industry and State bodies, and issued ten recommendations earlier this year.

The response has been an integrated one. Each local authority has undertaken a risk assessment based on the activities and the weather patterns over the past two winters and all of the various agencies are feeding into the final report on that. Each of the county and city councils already has effective crises management arrangements in place. Fire authorities have been using these procedures which enable the principal response agencies together with the Defence Forces, Civil Defence and other voluntary agencies to make and co-ordinate the appropriate response to the outbreak of fires.

The chief fire officers of the affected counties have enlisted the help of other response services to assist them in containing the fires. The Defence Forces, the Garda Síochána and Civil Defence have been directly involved and their assistance to them is invaluable. The Air Corps used helicopters to drop freshwater to bring the fires under control. Coillte has also used helicopters to protect State forestry. Forty soldiers supported fire crews in Donegal. Further troops have been on standby around the country to assist local authorities if required. This assistance provided was crucial to the main priority of the fire services, which is to protect life and property.

While the weather in recent days, where it has rained, has greatly assisted attempts to bring the fires under control, all members of the public are asked to remain vigilant, as the Deputies have pointed out, and follow the instructions of the fire and emergency services until the danger has passed.

I trust that these observations will be helpful. I am aware of the need to bring together in a more co-ordinated way all of the emergency services to deal with whatever emergency, whether dry or wet weather patterns or frost, arises in the future in order to ensure that we protect landowners, householders and the environment, which we all aspire to hold in the highest possible regard.

See this speech in context