Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Last week I raised the matter of the forest fires that raged in Connemara all that week. I wish to pay tribute to the staff on the ground, the Air Corps, the Army, the Garda, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the staff of Coillte and muintir na háite iad fein. However, when I raised the matter last week, I got a five-page response from one of the Minister of State's colleagues and the only reference to Galway in it was that "we are aware that the fires are burning".

The extent of the fire was extraordinary. I understand the Minister of State visited the area this week and witnessed the aftermath of the fire where the green cover has been turned to brown and black. The Cloosh Valley has the largest forest in Ireland, as the Minister of State is aware, which covers 4,000 ha. Almost a quarter of it has been destroyed as well as 2,000 ha of bogland. When the fire raged, it raged on three fronts and one of them extended across 8 km.

It affected wildlife, the forest itself and bogland, and it constituted a major threat to family life.

In that context, although it was not the responsibility of the Minister of State, there was an indication that the Government was either not aware of or not taking seriously what was going on in Galway on that extensive area of land and the destruction of the forest. First, there was the threat to human life, and second, there was the absolute damage to wildlife and trees. There is the cost of that and losing mature timber, as well as what it will cost to replace all this. From listening to a contribution from the citizen science project on the radio, it seems the pollution levels were on a par with those in Beijing. The only difference is that it will not last, whereas Beijing, unfortunately, has an ongoing problem. The pollution was equal to that in Beijing, where people wear masks.

I thank the Minister of State for visiting the area this week but I expected somebody to go down sooner. A warning has been issued to the area, which is welcome, as nobody should be lighting fires, particularly illegal fires. However, there is a bigger problem and questions must be asked about how this got out of control. What risk assessments have been done by Coillte, as within the biggest forest in the country we have the biggest wind farm? The feeling on the ground - I am reporting what was said - was that some of the effort went to preserving that rather than controlling the fire elsewhere.

In the past ten years there have been very few prosecutions in this area. If my figures are correct, there were nine prosecutions over ten years. The Minister of State will deal with the issue of the prosecutions but I am asking a more general question. When will the Minister get a report on what caused the fire and what has been learned from it? No matter what we do, we will always have people who light fires when they should not. There must be an emergency plan in place and proper risk assessment. When will that report come before us, telling us the damage, replacement plans and timescales? Most of all, it must inform us how we can prevent this happening in future. That is the most important lesson to be learned from this.

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Connolly for raising this very serious issue. As she mentioned, I visited Cloosh Valley in County Galway on Monday and saw for myself the utter devastation caused by the wildfire that raged there until Thursday, 11 May 2017, when it was finally brought under control.

As I commented during my visit, fire poses a serious risk to life, homes, and property. Forestry and wildlife habitats are also destroyed. I understand that while a wildfire risk can quickly develop following dry weather patterns in all areas where flammable vegetation such as grasses, gorse and heather are present, especially in proximity to forests and other assets, most fires may have been started deliberately. To set a fire at this time of the year is not only illegal but also totally irresponsible. As we are all aware, the burning of vegetation is controlled by the Wildlife Acts. It is an offence under section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976 to burn from 1 March to 31 August in any year any vegetation growing on any land not then cultivated. Individuals who are found to burn vegetation within that prohibited period are liable to prosecution by An Garda Síochána or by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. My Department has no role in this regard.

Forest fires have a wide range of impacts. With Cloosh Valley, I understand approximately 1,500 ha of forestry was destroyed and a similar area of bogland was destroyed on the perimeter, which is where the fire spread from. This is huge loss and the estimates come to approximately €4 million. To put this in context, the level of new planting annually for which grants have been paid over the last couple of year is in the region of 6,500 ha, so losing 1,500 ha in one foul sweep like this gives an indication of how massive was this incident.

With respect to cost, there is the loss of the value of the timber crop itself and the reconstitution costs. There were also the immediate costs involved in fire suppression as incurred by Coillte and the other agencies and bodies, such as the Galway fire service and the Air Corps, which were involved in monitoring and fighting the fires. In a time of budgetary control, such outbreaks put a heavy strain on all these bodies. Coillte, for example, has estimated the costs to be in the millions of euro. Other costs, which are difficult to quantify, include the disruption to normal fire service operation and the diversion of emergency services resources away from other life-saving operations.

I have focussed on the impact on my immediate area of responsibility, namely forestry, but should advise that another impact is the risk to payments under the basic payment scheme, as I advised in my statement yesterday. Officials in my Department are currently analysing a wide range of satellite imagery to identify land burnt illegally during the specified closed season for burning. Historic satellite imagery is also being examined as part of this process. Agricultural and eligible forestry land identified as burnt illegally as part of this investigation will be deemed ineligible for payment under the 2017 basic payment and other area-based schemes. I want to stress in this regard that my Department will not tolerate incidents of illegal burning of land and will take all necessary actions to ensure compliance with the conditions of the various EU-funded area-based schemes, including reducing payments and penalties where applicable.

Another issue is the threat to health. The Health Service Executive issued a public statement last week about the recent gorse fires, advising that people should limit the amount of time spent outdoors in areas affected by any smoke or ash. I understand that smoke inhalation can have adverse effects, especially on vulnerable groups.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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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.

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the points raised and, having visited the site, I know the work that was done. There were over 100 people there, including Coillte staff, the Army, Air Corps and some private helicopters who were experts in their actions. I visited a point where there was a new infrastructural road built by the wind company. As it was a crown fire, it jumped that road but those 62 km of new road infrastructure allowed emergency services to get in.

I looked at the map before I visited the site. The suspicion is the fire originated at a point some distance to the south east of the plantation.

The fire would have travelled pretty fast through what is bogland and a special area of conservation, SAC. The problem for contingency planning is that one would need to look at the perimeter, notwithstanding all the precautions that have to be taken on site and see how that vegetation can be controlled and managed. The National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, can give derogations for controlled burning, which is an essential part of vegetation management so that material can be edible. There was a noticeable lack of livestock and sheep on that ground.

I would not pretend to be the expert but it needs to consider how it will control that buffer zone and the vegetation so that it never gets to the point of being so tall, dry and highly calorific because that will burn. I have seen people in the Wicklow Gap, maybe hillwalkers or others, who through recklessness throw away a cigarette butt in the dry time when the wind is in the right direction. As the Deputy said, everything coincided perfectly, the change in wind direction and the drop in temperature assisted greatly in reducing the threat last Wednesday.