Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Currently, 30 or 40 wild fires are burning across Ireland. They are focused in the Cathaoirleach's county, Cork, as well as Kerry, Mayo, Galway, the north west, along the Border, the Dublin and Wicklow mountains and many other areas, including my own county of Waterford. Millions of euro in damage has been done by the 5 km wide fire in the Cloosh Valley in Galway in one of the worst fires this year. A total of 1,500 hectares has been destroyed and the fire continues. Firefighters are battling to bring that and fires in other areas under control, endangering their own safety and putting themselves in harm's way. The Cloosh Valley fire has decimated Coillte forestry lands, endangered a number of wind turbines and put thousands of acres of forest, peatlands and wildlife at risk. The cost of addressing these fires will run into hundreds of thousands of euro because of the deployment of helicopters and other fire-fighting equipment and personnel. These fires endanger much of the best of Ireland. They endanger our natural heritage, the habitats that are upland area support and the wildlife that exists within them. They endanger crucial jobs in tourism, which is just returning as Ireland and Europe emerge from recession. They sap resources that would be better spent elsewhere in our communities. They endanger crucial energy, transport and communications infrastructure and now they are even endangering and destroying people's homes, including that of the Brennan family in County Mayo. All of this is unforgivable.

Why is it happening? It is true we have seen exceptionally warm and dry weather with high winds, all of which make ideal climate for fires. We also know there is simply no chance that this number of fires is breaking out entirely accidentally. Fire services in Northern Ireland say 90% of fires there are set deliberately. Under existing rules, the burning of uplands was supposed to cease on 1 March. We can see from the constant weekend images of smoke filled hills and devastated acreage this is not being adhered to. What is the Government doing? Instead of acting to preserve our natural and vital heritage by supporting the National Parks and Wildlife Service through greater resource allocation or developing new and innovative methods of fire management and prevention, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys is seeking to expand the allowable times for the burning of gorse in our uplands. She says it will be done in a controlled and regulated fashion. After the past two months, how could we possibly take this undertaking seriously? The Government needs to act now to enforce existing rules to penalise those who deliberately set fires outside of the existing regulations. Gorse fires can have an important restorative effect on nature but we are seeing now why we regulate them and why we do not allow them in warm summer months, because they cannot be controlled. I am asking the Government to take action on this issue now.