Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome that national parks are being tasked with more intensive targeted measures, but, unfortunately, it seems to me like it is more of the same. Each year this happens, there are calls for more penalties and greater investigations, but each year it happens. We need a rethink and to look again at how we are managing this problem because the solutions that are being put in place are not working. Fundamentally, it comes down to the fact that we are talking about a national park, an area that is one of our few protected areas in the country, and we do not even have a management plan for it. We do not have a plan that states biodiversity protection is the number one priority in this area. That is key. None of our national parks has a management plan. It is a derogation of our duty not to have such plans in place.

The second issue we need to look at is why people are burning. People know it is not good to do it. They know it is not good for the land or their neighbours. They know also that it is not good to have fire fighters trying to put out these fires. Why then are they burning? They are doing so because the policies of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine over years incentivise them to burn. The Department has identified land that is deemed marginal and scrubby and it will not make payments on land in that condition. Essentially, we are saying to farmers that if they want payment for that land they need to make it productive. We need to flip that on its head. We need to make sure that farmers are paid to protect our land and that we value what they are doing in protecting our biodiversity, our environment, our soil, our trees and so on. We need to rethink and flip what we are doing on its head because what we are doing is not working. We need to work with farmers and local communities and put in place measures that will work.

I ask the Minister of State to establish a task force comprising officials from the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Environment, Climate and Communications to look again at how this is happening and to work with the farming community, the ecologists and the local communities to make sure that measures that will work and achieve our aims are put in place.

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