Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be as quick as I can because I want to address the many points raised by Deputies. I am not accepting the amendment.

Deputy Tóibín has acknowledged the need to address the concerns of farmers and others who are dealing with these situations, including road safety issues, every day. The Bill is a balanced and proportionate way of addressing their concerns via a pilot period and under strict regulations, which I will make.

This is not a refuse control Bill. I have a biodiversity action plan, as the Deputy is aware, and I am investing €250,000 in county biodiversity planning this year. Our regime is a managed one. I pay tribute to the firefighters and responsible citizens. My Bill is about protecting the natural heritage. It is a pilot regime. Our climate is changing and our heritage and wildlife legislation needs to keep up with those changes.

Regarding Deputy Eamon Ryan's points, this Bill is the opposite of wholesale. The Deputy is misinformed. The two-year pilot period will be subject to regulations that will be laid before the Houses. Not every hedge is roadside only. While I understand that there are different points of view, we must be fair in our representations of what is in the Bill.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service, along with emergency services personnel, has been attending three fires in the Wicklow Mountains National Park since last Thursday. It took until Sunday evening to bring them under control. The area in question is in the Wicklow uplands special area of conservation, which contains high-value conservation habitats, including blanket bog, wet heath and dry heath. There are still flare-ups in certain areas, fanned by a stiff breeze as the fires smoulder in the deep heat. The only solution is to douse the areas with water.

Given the inaccessibility of the area, we have been using the resources of the Air Corps and private aircraft. There is evidence that many of these fires may have been started maliciously. This follows a persistent pattern in Wicklow in recent months where there have been multiple successful and failed attempts to light deliberate fires from the edges of the public road. I thank the staff of the National Parks and Wildlife Service in Wicklow, the Garda Síochána, the fire service and other emergency services for all their work in the past few days in trying to deal with these wildfires in difficult and arduous conditions. The Deputy is aware that the main reason for the burning provisions is to allow people managing land to burn for proper land management purposes in March where, for example, weather has prevented this. This year, the last day for burning was the day before Storm Emma. The provisions of the Bill seek to do this while taking account of all of our responsibilities to protect our natural heritage and wildlife. I am delighted that the Deputy is sensitive to our farmers and am glad that he acknowledges the importance of roadside hedges to cyclists. I hope he did not endanger himself by entering cordoned off areas where my staff were fighting all weekend.

I am not responsible for dumping. The Deputy is wrong about what we are doing.

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