Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the same issue as Senator Daly in respect of the 2009 waste management regulations. There are farmers in County Tipperary who got letters from the county council, as they do every year, to say they were exempt in the context of controlled burning on their farms. They were then sent letters stating that, unknown to them and certainly unknown to us as public representatives and the council, as a result of a directive from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications the extension in respect of burning until 28 February would not happen. This happened without consultation or any information whatsoever being provided to councils, public representatives or farmers. If the Department and the Minister want the farming community to support his measures to reach our carbon targets and the role agriculture plays in that, doing something like this does not help. It creates division between the agricultural sector and the Minister. The least he could do is to inform us this might happen so that we could communicate with farmers when it is happening and why. There has to be some sort of understanding in respect of farmers. These are farmers who were seeking permission to carry out controlled burning. We know there are many people who carry out burning without looking for any exemption. These are farmers who are looking to do things right and correctly. I call on the Leader to contact or write to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, on this issue. There are several issues on which he has taken action in recent months as Minister for Transport or as Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications without any consultation whatsoever. The very least we should expect in this House as public representatives is to be informed and given clarity. I ask the Leader to do that.