Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There were more than 4,500 acres destroyed recently within the national park in Killarney. That is apart from the commonage in the foothills of Mangerton and other areas coming close to the park. This destruction was particularly severe in the Ladies' View and Derrycunnihy area. The air corps had to be called in with a bambi bucket to take water from the lakes to quench the fires. We have had 54 gorse fires this year alone as against five last year. Some 50 of those were in the past two weeks. Services are being overstretched. I am not saying there are not some already in place but this clearly points to the need to find more than fire breaks to protect the national park. It is a danger to the environment and birdlife, although the deer are managing to escape it. However, I am particularly concerned about the native red deer species.Many of them are straying all over the place. They are leaving the park and invading farmland, doing untold damage to land and crops.

In addition, there is a herd of almost equal number of sika deer, which is a Japanese imported species. A number of years ago one of the Arabian Sheiks sent his own plane and I think we gave him up to 100 sika deer. I wish he or some of his cousins would come to our aid again. The State must seriously consider - I do not want to say crudely getting rid of them - selling off to other estates in Ireland in the first instance or within the British Isles the sika deer. The State should encourage selling off or getting rid of the sika herd to make room exclusively for the native herd within the national park, which I believe could more than easily be accommodated there.

The situation is very serious and our foremost national park needs every protection possible. It is scandalous to think that these fires were apparently set deliberately. Hopefully the people would do it only within the permitted time in future and alert the fire services as to when they intend to do their burning.