Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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We are all glad at this stage that the fires that have raged across many counties are now under control. However, we acknowledge the threat that many of them can re-ignite in the short term, as some of them are still smouldering in my own county of Donegal. There is also a threat in the weeks and months ahead that these fires could take place again.

The community response to these fires has been nothing short of inspiring. Over the last week to ten days, ordinary men and women have been putting themselves in the line of fire, with the support of our fire fighters, army personnel and the Civil Defence. There has been a major community mobilisation aimed at tackling these fires.

There was real sense of emergency, with fires blazing for up to ten days. Two houses in Donegal were burned out. Some farmers' livelihoods have gone up in flames. There are miles and miles of fences that have been destroyed. Firemen and civilians were put into dangerous situations. However, there seemed to be a lack of urgency from the State. An interdepartmental group should be established on a permanent basis to deal with responses of this nature. We had such a gripe following the big freeze and the flooding problems, and now we have issues with forest fires. There needs to be an immediate interdepartmental response to events such as these, which could be made up of Departments and State agencies such as Met Éireann, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Department of Defence and the Department of Finance. Such an interdepartmental response would make sure that we harness the resources of the State appropriately and that we have an active rapid response unit.

I am sure the Minister saw the thousands of ordinary people out fighting fires. None of them was prepared. None of them knew the best protective clothing to wear or the best way to fight a fire. These are simple things that could have been explained to them if an interdepartmental unit was set up and published the best advice possible to ordinary citizens in these areas. I appeal to the Minister to set up such a unit. I also would like the Minister to look at the need to compensate farmers whose livelihoods have gone up in flames, particularly with farm inspections coming up.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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I am sure the Minister has been fully briefed on the devastating impact on farmers and on wildlife in the areas affected by the fires. It is ironic because the farming community is constantly harassed about its responsibilities to wildlife, habitats and special areas of conservation by enthusiastic people with clipboards, yet this situation of widespread devastation could have been avoided with better approaches. One such approach is related to the destocking of commonage that started in 1998. The real experts on the environment in rural areas are our farmers. Wherever there was stocking on land, wherever grazing had not been taking place, the impact was much less. Wherever there was a shortage of stock, it was more profound. That is a key issue. I know it is not the responsibility of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, but I would like him to speak to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to see if this can be reviewed.

I join Deputy Doherty in commending the heroic actions of our firemen throughout the State, of the Defence Forces and, most importantly, local volunteers who would not have the skills required to do this job. The enthusiasm and the determination to assist was clear throughout Donegal and across the State.

There are also examples in some parts of the State of approaches taken by the emergency services that seemed to be more successful than approaches taken in other parts. There needs to be a complete review by the relevant Departments of lessons learned from this. Another point made is the impact of the frost, which created the circumstances that allowed the exceptional amount of gorse fires to continue.

I endorse Deputy Doherty's call for a co-ordinated emergency response to be deployed to situations like these in the future, and to pre-empt them as much as possible. We also need to deploy the same resources to the floods and to the frost. As a county councillor at the time, I have to say we were deeply disappointed with the approach of the previous Government to the crisis in the freezing temperatures. It was very slow and it took weeks to get off the ground. It is important that this Government does not repeat those mistakes. It has failed in its first test to co-ordinate the response nationally, and if it was not for local authorities, local firemen and local communities, this would have been much worse. It needs to be dealt with in an authoritative fashion. The Minister and his colleagues in the relevant Departments should sort this out. I think they should send a letter of congratulations on behalf of the Government to the local authorities and fire services, thanking them for their heroic efforts and reassuring them that they will have the supports necessary to do their job, including water tankers for the fire services. I also ask the Minister to consider the issue of destocking that has contributed to this and I remind him of the need for a better co-ordinated emergency response in the future.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputies Doherty and Mac Lochlainn for raising this important matter. I would like to join them at the outset to express sincere appreciation to our firefighters who have worked tirelessly to tackle the wildfires which have afflicted many parts of the country in recent days. I am glad to place on record the Government's appreciation to all those agencies, including the Defence Forces, the Garda Síochána and Civil Defence, which have been working closely together to respond rapidly and appropriately to the situation as it has developed. The worst affected region has been Donegal, but other seriously affected counties include Mayo, Galway, Cavan, Monaghan, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath, Meath and Louth.

Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (Deputy Phil Hogan); Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Deputy Phil Hogan):

The unseasonal dry and hot weather since the Government took office has created the conditions for wild land fires-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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A sight of things to come.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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-----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.