Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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74. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will consider delaying the passage of the current Heritage Bill and commission a study of the impact of recent wild fires on wildlife in affected areas to ascertain the damage such burning will do to wildlife. [27568/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Section 40 of the Wildlife Acts 1976, as amended, prohibits the cutting, grubbing, burning or destruction of vegetation, with certain strict exemptions, from 1 March to 31 August.

Following a review of Section 40, which involved, inter alia, consideration of submissions from interested parties, I announced proposals in December 2015 to introduce legislation to allow for managed hedge cutting and burning at certain times within the existing closed period on a pilot two year basis.  The legislation required to allow for these pilot measures is included in the Heritage Bill 2016, which was published in January 2016.

The Bill recently completed its passage through Seanad Éireann and is now before Dail Éireann.  In the meantime, the existing provisions relating to Section 40 of the Wildlife Acts remain in force.

While my Department will assess the damage done by recent gorse fires, I do not believe that these incidents are related to the provisions in the Heritage Bill relating to burning and hedge cutting. This matter can of course be raised in the context of discussions on the Bill in Dáil Éireann.