Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome what the Minister of State is setting out but the difficulty is gorse fires have raged across all the west, with serious damage being done. This is not the first year it has happened and it has been ongoing for years. I welcome that the Department is taking satellite images, examining the damage and will take prosecutions if it can, that has simply not worked to date. A red alert was issued by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine before the fires broke out. When that was issued, what did Coillte do and what emergency plan went into place to prevent the damage? It had been anticipated.

I welcome what Coillte has done on the ground but I am talking on a general level. If a red alert is issued relating to fires, what actions would be taken by Coillte and what risk assessment had been carried out, given its experience over the years? This is the biggest forest in the country and we know a small group of people burn illegally. We do not know if that was the cause of the fire. The risk of damage is too much. I have not gone into the effect on bird life and diversity as the immediate concern was human life and houses. This should not have happened. When will we get a report as to what was lacking in the risk assessment or health and safety statement, or all the other elements that would be relevant to a forest of this size with the biggest wind farm? Why was this not anticipated? These are my questions, in addition to those concerned with prosecutions. They were always going to be a side issue in comparison with the overall plan.

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